


The Slumbering City

by Indygodusk



Category: Rurouni Kenshin
Genre: Alternate Universe, Buildings that think they're animals, F/M, KOI, Magic, Magical fountain, Modern Era, PTSD, Sexual Tension, aggressive courtship, anxiety about crowds, secret garden, sentient magic
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-10-02
Updated: 2018-10-02
Packaged: 2019-07-24 00:20:41
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 10
Words: 64,799
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16169750
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Indygodusk/pseuds/Indygodusk
Summary: When Kaoru takes a museum tour she doesn't expect to get lost. Nor does she expect to bleed on a dry fountain or awaken a dead garden. However getting claimed by the Battousai estate, and its master, is a consequence she comes to both dread and long for. (from 2006-2007)





	1. The Dead Fountain

**Author's Note:**

> Disclaimer: Rurouni Kenshin does not belong to me. It is merely a vehicle to work out my sexual perver- I mean, oh, never mind.
> 
> AN: This is the result of a very sexy dream that a cruel alarm clock wrenched me away from. Unable to return, despite repeated use of the snooze button, I was forced to work out my UST with this story. Of course, I have to actually set up the scene first so it isn’t just a PWP, darn it.
> 
> This story was written in 2006-2007 and posted elsewhere. There are a LOT of author notes in it. Feel free to skip.

 

Water shouldn’t smell like sunlight.  In fact, sunlight shouldn’t have a smell.  Nevertheless, there Kaoru was, kneeling with her hands submerged in a fountain of briskly flowing water, inhaling the subtle aroma rapturously. 

Distant and muted in her mind, she heard the beeping of her watch alarm. Why the alarm sounded she couldn’t quite remember.  As she watched the trickling water wash away years of grime and neglect from the blue stoned fountain, she wondered why she tried.  

Between the carvings of flowering vines were small etchings of dancing couples.  They looked happy.  Leaning closer, she noticed that there were words carved along the rim.  Water and age had worn them to mere impressions, yet as she watched they became deeper and sharper.  She didn’t recognize the shape of the letters.  Nevertheless, she knew that if she just stared a little bit longer their meaning would become clear.

The beeping became louder.  Fuzzily she realized that unlike her old watch, this gift from Megumi was waterproof. _Megumi!_ Thoughts of her practical doctor friend, combined with the shrillness of the alarm, finally awoke Kaoru from her stupor. 

Removing her hands from the chilly water, she turned the watch alarm off.  It took her three tries because her hands were shaking so badly.  The tremors didn’t come from the chill of the water – they came from exhaustion, fear, and exhilaration.  Kaoru wasn’t sure what had just happened, but she knew she shouldn’t be this tired. Something was tugging at her attention, trying to get her to gaze back into the fountain, back at the words carved on the rim.  The sting as she bit her lip provided just enough of a jolt that she was able to resist it.  All she knew for sure was that she needed to leave. 

If she was late for lunch with Megumi, her friend would worry.  Then she would give Kaoru a harsh scolding.  Megumi could wield words as artfully as she wielded scalpels during surgery. Kaoru really didn’t want to give her more practice.

Standing up shakily, she walked over to the now sturdy-looking wooden porch circling this private garden and carefully climbed up.  She just needed to find her way back to the entrance.  Someone else could worry about why the overgrown courtyard she’d first discovered now looked like a perfectly groomed garden.

Only a few hours ago she’d been safely ensconced in a museum tour group, viewing the artifacts of this historic mansion.  Kaoru had been so determined to prove to Megumi that she was still the brave, independent girl Megumi had once known back in their small town.  Although Megumi had moved to this far off city years ago to become a doctor, they had stayed close through letters, calls, and visits. 

After the accident, Megumi had temporarily abandoned her practice to come stay with Kaoru.  Megumi had only agreed to return to this metropolis after she’d extracted Kaoru’s promise to come and visit.  It had almost been a forced promise to move here as well, but Kaoru had managed to successfully put her foot down.  Moving in with Megumi would not help prove her independence.

Of course, Megumi had failed to mention that she still had to work for part of Kaoru’s visit.  Megumi had offered to let Kaoru hang out in her office while she visited patients on the medical floors, but Kaoru had seen too much of hospitals in the past two years to ever voluntarily visit one. 

As an alternative to hiding out in Megumi’s apartment, Kaoru’s first choice, Kaoru had offered to visit the city art museum instead. “Are you sure you no longer-” Megumi began to ask gently before Kaoru interrupted her.

“I’m fine.  I go to the museum by myself all the time back home.”

Megumi searched Kaoru’s eyes for a moment before yielding.  “Alright, but at least let me meet you for lunch.  I should be able to visit all of my hospitalized patients by about one.  Why don’t I meet you in front of the museum at 1:30?”

When Kaoru had visited museums back home, especially when she went in the morning, they were always quiet sanctuaries occupied by few people and a myriad of oil paintings, marble sculptures, and wooden masks caught on the cusp of emotion.  She loved the way art sparked her imagination.  Museums were also a sanctuary from the crowds in other public places.  At least, they were back at home.

All too soon Kaoru discovered that here in the big city it was different, very different.  Masses of people swarmed through the museum, creating a constant buzz of noise.  Bumps and jostles were taken as a matter of course instead of met with apologies.  Kaoru had entered the museum in between rushes, and so had not realized until too late how crowded it would be.  The area around the entrance and exit was even worse than the exhibits.  Hyperventilating, she wedged herself between a wall and a desk in the seething lobby.  There were too many people.

Attempting to distract herself, she counted the number of blossoms surrounding the ivory-colored orchid ornamenting the chestnut desk on her left.  When her breathing finally slowed, she began examining other items on the desk: the old-fashioned silver nib feather pen, the stacks of colorful brochures advertising exhibits, and the large black and white sign proclaiming the start of a private mansion tour in less than two minutes.  Seeing the word _private_ , her mind immediately latched onto it like a life preserver. She didn’t worry where the mansion was or who it belonged to; she just cared that it would be private and hopefully less crowded.

Taking a white-knuckled grip on the edge of the desk counter, she made her way in front of the sign and wrote her name.  Only five other names were on the list.  With an escape in sight she allowed herself to relax.  Hiding her hand between her body and the desk, she flexed the fingers carefully.  They were stiff and slightly painful from the tightness of her grip on the counter. 

A bell rang, assembling the group to leave out of a small side door to the museum parking lot.  Inside the museum van, Kaoru sat next to an excited elderly couple.  The van seat fit four, so Kaoru had an empty space between her and the duo.  Introductions were made after the wife elbowed the husband. “We’re the Hiromu family. Charmed,” he said shortly but politely. 

The spectacled wife clutched her husband’s arm and leaned over his lap to grin at Kaoru.  “We actually get to see _his_ house!  Isn’t it wonderful?”

Unsure just who _he_ was, Kaoru merely nodded and smiled.  Luckily the tour guide started speaking and spared Kaoru the need to come up with a better reply.

“Welcome to Museum Excursions!” smiled the petite young woman leading their tour.  Shaggy black bangs framed sparkling blue eyes.  The rest of her hair was tied back in a long braid that curled over her shoulder into a coil on her lap. 

“My name is Makimachi Misao.  Please feel free to call me Misao, as I’ll be your tour guide. Today we are visiting the mansion of the mysterious and enigmatic Lord Battousai.  One of the founders of this city, and the only one to settle here after the wars, the story of Lord Battousai’s life has become completely mixed with legend.  This year is the first time his home has been opened to the public since it was built.  His date of birth is unknown, but he helped establish this city over 250 years ago and was the premier warrior of his, some argue of all, time.  Since then, his household has helped to rule this city.  Like their progenitor, they have all insisted on remaining just as private and mysterious.”

Mrs. Hiromu interrupted the guide with a question.  “I heard he had a tragic love affair and died of a broken heart.  Is that true?”

Kaoru noticed that Misao’s eyes flickered with some emotion at this question, but she couldn’t tell which emotion.  “History and legend tell conflicting tales of just what happened, but it is known that Lord Battousai had a contracted wife named Tomoe.”  Seeing the interest her statement had generated, Misao smiled and leaned forward.  “Unknown to Lord Battousai, Tomoe had infiltrated his household with the intention of destroying him and his new city.  ”

“Women,” snorted a young teenager lounging in the back of the van cockily. “Never trust ‘em.”  Over half of the people in the van turned and glared.  Kaoru was wishing her seat reclined back so that she could accidentally bash it into his head.

“Excuse me,” continued their tour guide with lowered brows, “but she was motivated by love!”  Clearing her throat after that vehement statement, Misao smoothed her hands down the front of her skirt a bit embarrassedly. “As I was saying, during the wars Tomoe’s fiancée was killed by Lord Battousai. This prompted her to seek revenge.  However, after marrying Lord Battousai a terrible thing happened.”  Misao paused dramatically.

The van was hushed except for the muted sounds of tires rolling over asphalt and the hum of the engine. “What?” Kaoru asked into the baited silence.  “What happened?”    For some reason she couldn’t explain, the story of Lord Battousai’s life was resonating in her mind.  It wasn’t familiar, but it felt important. She had to know more.

“Lady Tomoe fell in love with her husband.  Loving him, she could no longer bear to betray him.  But it was too late.  While she was attempting to stop the conspirators from carrying out their plan, Lord Battousai showed up and there was a fierce battle.”

“What happened to the Lady Tomoe?” Mrs. Hiromu asked. 

“Tomoe tried to stop the fighting and protect her husband, but events had grown beyond her control.  She died in her husband’s arms,” finished the tour guide solemnly. 

In the respectful and sorrowful silence, Kaoru felt tears prick her eyes.  She could so easily picture the pale and beautiful Tomoe clasped in her tall and dashing husband’s grief-stricken arms – his silver-streaked black hair rustling in the wind as he rocked her body gently, begging his wife to live and promising forgiveness if only she would open her eyes.  Something seemed wrong with her image, but she was too caught up in the story to worry about what. “And Lord Battousai?” Kaoru prompted anxiously. “He didn’t really die of a broken heart, did he?”

Misao looked at Kaoru’s troubled face and smiled gently.  “No, he didn’t.  He came back to this house,” and Kaoru realized that without her noticing they had parked in a winding driveway in front of a huge mansion, “and continued working to protect this city.  Then one day he just disappeared and his successor took his place.”

“Did he ever remarry?”  Surprisingly, this question came from the terse Mr. Hiromu.

“No, but it is said that many woman traveled to the city over the years in a bid to win his heart and title.  None of them, however, could pass his test.”

Checking her watch, Misao frowned slightly and then looked out the van’s window. Only partially concealing a sigh of annoyance, she continued speaking. “Great magic went into the city’s making. It took the combined might of all of the founders to set the spell. However, if any of you have visited the outer rings of the city, you’ll notice they look completely different from the buildings in the center.  They are shorter, flimsier-”

“Uglier,” interjected the teenaged boy.

“Uglier,” she grinned, “and much more mundane.  There is no magic in them. But that’s not the way it’s supposed to be.  Every building, even the new ones built hundreds of years later, were supposed to be protected and infused with magic, able to grow taller and fix themselves with minimum maintenance. Somehow, something has gone wrong with the foundation spell on the city.”

“Too bad none of the founders are around to ask,” joked the boy again.

A honk presaged the arrival of another museum van.  “Finally!” she exclaimed huffily, and then looked up at our confused faces.  “Oh, I meant to tell you, the East High football team will be joining our tour.  Please remember that this is still a private residence and be respectful.  Don’t go into any rooms but those on the tour route, please. Let’s all go inside, shall we?”

            Kaoru felt her stomach turn into lead as the other van disgorged about twenty tall, beefy, chattering boys.  Mrs. Hiromu reached over her husband’s lap again to pat Kaoru’s arm. “Maybe we’ll even see a picture of Lord Battousai inside.  Oh, this is so exciting!”  With that, she spryly maneuvered herself out of the van with the help of Misao’s arm.  Finally Kaoru was the only person left in the van.  Firming her lips, she forced herself to crawl over the seat.  The football team’s chatter as they thronged in front of the building made her stagger as she stepped out of the van. 

            “Excuse me, Ma’am,” interrupted the driver of the van.  “I need to close the door.”  Kaoru looked down and slowly peeled her fingers off the metal frame.  Breathing slowly and deeply, she focused on the shoulders of Mrs. Hiromu and followed her into the palatial mansion.  According to the Misao, the front of the building possessed one of the most elaborate and beautiful moldings in the country.  Unfortunately, Kaoru didn’t trust her fragile control long enough to look up from Mrs. Hiromu’s bony shoulder-blades.

            Inside the house, she forced herself to raise her eyes.  The stunning murals painted on the walls and ceilings of the long hallways and rooms served to finally distract her from her phobia.  As long as she walked slowly, she could stay at the rear of the group.  She could even pretend she was almost alone.  The football team always raced through each room to crowd around Misao in the next doorway.  Kaoru rather suspected that they were more interested in Misao’s legs than in the historical artifacts. 

            That all changed when they entered the armory.  The football players momentarily abandoned their perky tour guide to exclaim over the cases full of, as one player so elegantly put it, “sharp and pointy things.” Not hearing any of them able to make the distinction between a naginata and a spear, or a sword on a stick for that matter, Kaoru wondered about the quality of their education. 

Nothing less than an exquisite sword could have drawn her into that seething maelstrom of idiocy and male testosterone.  Unfortunately, the high-pitched squeal of Mrs. Hiromu drew her attention to the object of her downfall.  It wasn’t the spear that the older woman was exclaiming over that caught Kaoru’s eye; it was the shadowed katana next to it.  Even from a distance she could make out the gentle curvature of the blade, the dark enamel of its sheath, and the worn but well-preserved wrappings on the hilt. 

Fortifying herself with a flash of contempt for the football team’s lack of intelligence, she held her breath and quickly and gracefully wove her way to the sword.  A cold sweat broke out on her brow, but she reached her destination just as Mr. and Mrs. Hiromu moved on.  Luckily for Kaoru, this corner of the room had emptied.  The space allowed her to focus on the sword.

Unlike the rest of the weapons, this katana wasn’t well lit.  It hung in a shadowed corner without any white placard of explanation. Most likely it would be overlooked by an uninformed observer. 

Uniformed, however, did not describe Kamiya Kaoru.  As the heir to her own sword school, albeit one that used bokken instead of katana, Kaoru had always held a lively appreciation for weapons.

Up close, the katana was breathtaking.  The hand-guard was molded into a simple but powerful geometric design.  Under the low light the steel shimmered, revealing the folding pattern characteristic of only the best of swords.  From the corner of her eye, the katana almost seemed to emit a soft glow.  The stamp of the smith just under the hilt belonged to one of the most famous master craftsmen ever.  To top it off, that smith had died over two hundred years ago.  _This had to be Lord Battousai’s sword._   Kaoru didn’t know how she knew, but even if there had been a sign claiming it belonged to a second cousin twice-removed, she still would have insisted it belonged to the Battousai.

A sudden loud clap drew the room’s attention to their tour guide.  “May I please have your attention?” Misao loudly asked.  Kaoru was impressed that such a small woman could produce such a large sound.  “If you would all gather around, I’ll explain a little more about the history of these weapons.”  With much jostling and laughing, the football team and the group from her van crowded up close to Misao’s position. 

Before she knew it, Kaoru was surrounded.  Sweaty arms and backs bumped into her as the group strained to hear the tour guide’s explanation.  Kaoru found herself trapped and hyperventilating.  Panicking, she flattened herself to the wall beneath Lord Battousai’s swords and tried to figure out how to escape.  The bodies pressed closer. In a sweep of vertigo she felt the room shrinking, almost scraping the top of her head.

Biting her lip bloody, she held in a sob and flailed her hand against the wall, blindly searching for an escape.  Clutching at a piece of molding, she felt it move under her fierce grip and click up into the wall.  Her whimper of surprise as the wall swung open was hidden under the sudden laughter of the tall group of boys standing in front of her.  As she fell backwards, she twisted as best she could to absorb the blow.  The sound of laughter ended abruptly as the hidden door swung shut. 

            Clumsily regaining her feet, she put her fingertips on the wall of the dimly lit passageway and began to walk briskly, and then run.  She had no destination; she just had to get _away_.  Mindless with fear, she didn’t know how long she’d been running when she finally came to her senses to find herself staring at a crack in the wall.  Her two hands were bracketing the crooked line and her nose itched from the dust.  She sneezed. 

It was a dead-end.  Moving her hands across the cool wood and plaster in ever-widening sweeps, she finally found a small irregularity.  Pushing down, she saw another section of wood pop out.  Grabbing the knob, she pushed and pulled to no effect.  Finally, with a growl of frustration, she twisted it like a doorknob.  The wall silently swung open.  Blushing, she realized that she should have tried that in the first place.

Upon exiting the passage, she found herself standing on a covered porch.  It overlooked an enclosed garden.  Unlike the rest of the house, this garden was in a horrible state.  Weeds obscured the pattern of the ornamental rocks and sprawled up onto the rotting wood of the veranda. Yet even the weeds were pale, sickly looking things. It felt like a wound hiding in the midst of this magic sustained city.  Remembering the dust and cracks inside the latter part of the passageway, Kaoru realized it wasn’t only this poor, pitiful garden that had stopped cleaning and repairing itself. 

“How long have you been like this?” she found herself whispering into the air.  A glint of brightness in the midst of the decay caught her eye. Stepping down into the garden, she made her way to the only spot of color besides pale greens, yellows, and browns.  Beneath the weed choked limbs of a maple tree, she noticed something gleaming blue.  Kneeling down between its roots, she felt the weeds that hadn’t flattened under her weight tickling at her shoulders.

Curious, she leaned forward and began ripping out handfuls of vegetation from around the speck of blue.  Wiping away years of dirt and grime, Kaoru uncovered a dark blue stone flecked with gray and silver.  It seemed to be carved into the shape of a flower.  When she tried to pry it out, it wouldn’t even budge.  At first she’d thought it to be a small figurine, but it seemed to be attached to something. 

A pile of weeds and dirt began to grow steadily by her side.  The chalky topsoil quickly turned to damper earth and even clay.  Licking her dry lips, she could taste salty sweat and bitter dust.  After an indeterminable amount of time, Kaoru discovered that she had unearthed a small fountain.  Despite her best efforts, the speckled blue stone was still dull and lifeless beneath its stains of grime.  There seemed to be a pattern of flowers and vines tracing their way around the fountain’s rim. 

Inserting her fingers into the dirt-clogged pipe where water must have one flowed, she traced her fingers through the grime in a path for her imaginary water to run.  It looked like the water used to spill over the rim and pour down into a streambed.  With the wild grasses and weeds in the way she couldn’t quite find its path, but she decided that it would have curled around half of the garden before disappearing underground where a rock garden’s pebbled replica took the real water’s place. 

As she flopped down into the long grasses Kaoru thought to herself, _this must have once been a beautiful sanctuary_.  Between the tree branches she saw fluffy white clouds patterning the heavens, but the brilliance of the sun did not exist inside her little square of blue sky.  Rolling over, she placed her chin on her folded, grimy hands and stared at the fountain. 

_I want you to work._

Rising to her knees, Kaoru crawled forward.  Something was urging her to crawl into the fountain. It promised that it would make the fountain work again, it would make her life work again. Almost in a trance, she had one hand flat inside the base and was moving to place her other hand inside.  As she shifted forward, however, her hand landed on a pebble and rolled. 

Falling forward, she slammed her chin into the rocky rim and bit her tongue.  Kaoru let out a shocked cry of pain.  In agony, she leaned forward and let the blood and saliva trickle from her mouth.  Constant whimpers escaped her throat. With tearing eyes, she watched the moist strands of blood fall into the fountain… and disappear. 

Beneath her hands she felt a humming start.  Kaoru reared up in a bid to remove her upper body from the fountain, but her hands seemed soldered to the stone.  Tears trickled from her eyes and combined with the blood dripping from her mouth.  A few drops splattered onto her fingers and remained.  For a second she had wildly wondered if she had only imagined herself bleeding; every speck of blood that touched stone became instantly absorbed.  The blood on her hands proved she wasn’t crazy.  _At least, not yet._

The humming ratcheted into rumbling and beneath the fear Kaoru found herself getting curious.  She heard a _pop_.  Then, amazed, she watched as out of the pipe plugged with decades of mud and debris burst a flood of muddy water.  The brown liquid flowed out across her hands and quickly rose to her elbows.  As it spilled over the rim it seemed to effortlessly dispel the tall weeds out of its way in a foot-wide swath.  Miraculously, it twined around her ankles as if sentient and left Kaoru’s feet dry. 

Soon the water began to run clear in the fountain.  It sparkled iridescent between her hands and, following the same previous impulse, Kaoru leaned forward and kissed her mouth to the surface, taking a sip.  The dusty tail of her ponytail disappeared beneath the waters and danced in the fountain’s current, tickling her forearms.  The water tasted indescribable, quenching a thirst she’d never noticed until that moment. 

Lifting her mouth from the water, Kaoru laughed joyously.  Then she dunked her entire head into the water.  Rearing back with in a move that sent her wet hair arcing through the air, Kaoru breathed deeply.  It took her a moment to realize that her mouth no longer hurt.  Moving her tongue cautiously, she realized it was healed.  Even the scabs where she’d nervously nibbled her lips were gone. 

A lingering glance around the courtyard revealed a drastically different scene.  Although she still half-knelt in the fountain, her knees no longer rested on a pile of weeds.  Instead, springy moss cushioned her joints.  Healthy and clearly delineated tree limbs curved over her head and cast shade on the precisely arranged patches of moss, flowers, and stone that now festooned the garden.  Even the air smelled different. 

As she took in another deep breath through her nose, Kaoru identified the elusive scent painting the air.  It was sunlight.  Looking back down at her hands submerged beneath the water, Kaoru felt her thoughts slow.  The ripple of the water was mesmerizing. 

However, as the minutes crawled by, she began to feel a small voice tickling in the back of her mind.  Water shouldn’t smell like sunlight.  In fact, sunlight shouldn’t have a smell.  Nevertheless, there Kaoru was, kneeling with her hands submerged in a fountain of briskly flowing water, inhaling the subtle aroma rapturously. 

Distant and muted in her mind, she heard the beeping of her watch alarm.

 

 


	2. A Legal Claim

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Dictionary:  
> Bokken – wooden sword  
> Naginata – a curved blade mounted at the end of a staff, somewhat similar to a European halberd or glaive

 

Earth painted the knees of Kaoru’s jeans from where she’d knelt beside the fountain.  Brushing her pants off distractedly, she circled the now thriving garden looking for an exit.  The wood of the veranda had been gray, rough, and rotting with age when she’d first entered.  Now the planks glowed with a smooth golden tan in the sunlight.  Through the soles of her well-worn sneakers radiated heat from the sun-warmed wood, begging her to lie down and rest from her labors.  The unnatural fatigue still dogged her steps, but Kaoru refused to give into it, however tempting.

After about ten minutes of searching, Kaoru was ready to scream.  As far as she could tell, there weren’t even any windows looking into the garden, much less doors for entering and exiting.  Punching the wall didn’t make her feel better, either.  It just hurt.

Leaning her forehead against a wooden pillar, Kaoru cradled her aching hand to her chest and closed her eyes exhaustedly.  “Please,” she whispered, “I’m tired.  I’m late and I need to go.” 

For a moment nothing happened.  Then the grain of the wooden pillar beneath her forehead grew hot and the scent of sunlight became almost overwhelmingly strong.  Strength flowed into her body, burning away not only her current fatigue, but also the dark cloud she’d been living under since the accident. 

Rejuvenated, Kaoru opened her eyes and straightened.  With a smile she noted that a sliding paper door had appeared three feet away.  “Thank you,” she called out to the bright courtyard.  A lick of sunny warmth brushed against her leg. If the garden and veranda had been a dog, she had the impression that it would have been wagging its tail in pleasure.  _How odd_ ….

Sliding open the paper door, Kaoru stepped into an empty room.  Opposite was another door.  Excited, Kaoru rushed to the outer door, forgetting in her haste to close the one leading back into the garden.  She exited the room into a long hallway and quickly began walking in the only available direction. 

Wandering through the corridors of the Battousai mansion, Kaoru tried to find a room that looked familiar.  None of the doors she opened yielded anything recognizable, but the fact that the hallway hadn’t ended yet gave her hope.  Several times she looked back and noticed hallway disappearing about ten feet behind her.  It seemed like the house was creating a passage just for her in an effort to speed her way. 

This whole experience was wonderful. She probably should be feeling terrified too, but she was having trouble hanging on to any negative feelings.  Kaoru was worried about Megumi’s reaction to her tardiness, of course, and about getting in trouble for wandering off, not to mention what she’d do if the hallway disappeared with her inside of it, but those emotions paled under the rush of energy and joy bubbling through her veins.

Although she’d heard that people used magic all the time here in the big city, back home in her little town people mostly depended on technology.  Magic was rare there. It wasn’t until a field trip in ninth grade that she experienced magic firsthand, and even then it had been a small thing.  A local farmer used magic to turn his grapes instantly into wine instead of letting the bottles sit for years aging. Since she hadn’t met anyone else in her town that used enchantments, it had also served to isolate her from magic.

Come to think of it, that had been her first taste of alcohol too.  She hadn’t liked the tartness on her tongue or the burning in the back of her throat.  The taste, combined with the expensive price of alcohol compared to other, kinder-to-her-budget beverages had turned her away from such drinks. 

Kaoru didn’t know if this feeling was normal.  Maybe anyone could have awoken that garden.  Maybe she wasn’t special.  However, she felt special and joyous and she was going to hug those feelings tight to her chest for as long as she could.

Down the corridor, Kaoru saw an open door.  Through its frame she recognized the silhouettes of swords and spears.  It was the weapons room.  Pumping her fist into the air in celebration, she jogged forward.  She had known that everything would work out.

Crippled by fear when she’d first seen this room, she hadn’t truly appreciated the many beautiful objects.  Now alone, her palms itched and her pace slowed.  Energy popped and fizzled under her skin. It took almost more control than she had to resist grabbing the display bokken off the wall and enthusiastically swinging into a kata, or perhaps picking up the naginata and reenacting a historical drama she’d seen last year on television.

_Remember_ , she scolded herself half-heartedly, _you don’t want to make trouble on your very first day in the city_. _At least, not more trouble than you already have_.  Returning to a jog, she forced herself to exit the room.

Maybe if she was lucky, the tour group hadn’t even noticed her absence.  Perhaps she could just slip back into the rear of the group without anyone being none the wiser.  After all, it would be hard to notice one missing woman with all of those rowdy teenaged boys creating distractions.

Rounding the corner, Kaoru was forced to skid to a stop in order to avoid crashing into the tall man lounging against the wall.  His stoic expression did not bode well for her escape.  Eyes narrowing, he gracefully uncurled his long limbs and straightened up to stand in the center of the hallway. 

He had to be almost a foot taller than Kaoru’s five foot one.  She had to take a step back just to keep from hurting her neck as she looked up into his face.  Everything, from his stiff trench coat to the way his dark blue shirt fastened all the way up to mid-neck, screamed that he meant business. 

“Um, Hi?” Kaoru felt intimidated, but he didn’t need to know that, right?  “I got lost and was wondering if you could direct me to the front door.  I was with the museum group.”  His face didn’t even twitch during her explanation.  “If they’re still touring I can just go and wait in the van.”  Still he stared at her, as if trying to pry out her every secret just by looking. 

If he didn’t say something soon, she just knew she was going to start babbling.  Considering the weirdness that had just happened with the fountain and the disappearing corridor, babbling would be a bad thing.  “You must be busy.  I’m sorry for bothering you.”  Bowing politely, she stepped left and tried to skirt around his intimidating frame. 

Slapping his hand onto the wall only inches from her face, he loomed over her petite body and blocked her escape.  “You’ve been missing for almost two hours,” he commented in an overly even voice.  “We looked, but couldn’t find you.  Where have you been?”

The looming was definitely freaking her out, but this panic was nothing compared to her earlier episode and was thus easily suppressed.  Tilting her head in inquiry, she tried to look small and inoffensive. _Ha_ , she thought, _psychoses are good for something after all. I’m so used to being terrified out of my mind that a good, solid, scary person is actually a bit comforting.  So there! I’m not afraid of you, even if you do loom and smell delicious- I mean look intimidating! Wait, what was his question?_   

Clearing her throat, Kaoru gathered her thoughts and tried to modulate her tone into something soft and feminine.  Her usual strident denials of guilt probably wouldn’t help here.  “I got lost.  This is a very big place and I kept getting turned around.  I’m terribly sorry if I inconvenienced you.”  Unfortunately, he still didn’t seem to be buying it.

It had been years since she’d tried the puppy dog eyes on someone, but desperate times called for desperate measures.  Besides, this infusion of magical energy reminded her of being young and able to get away with anything. 

Looking down at the floor, Kaoru took a big breath and thought about baby animals.  Then she lifted her chin and gazed wide-eyed into his piercing stare.  For a moment her mental images wavered into large carnivores with sharp teeth, but her will was strong and her discipline pure.  Petting zoos weren’t just for kids, after all.  She’d done training.  Grasping onto the memory of the baby goats, _and the kitties, can’t forget those_ , she managed to hold her innocent expression.

With a grunt he dropped his arm from the wall and stepped back.  “Come,” he ordered as he started to walk.  Kaoru held in her sigh of relief and followed.  It was tempting to try and speculate on where they were going, but he looked like the type to notice if she dropped her act. 

In an attempt to keep from looking like the type of girl who would break into a secret passageway, dig up an old garden, and magically fix a fountain that the owner might not have wanted fixed, she started listing off all of the baby animals she had ever seen… alphabetically.  Kaoru wasn’t quite sure what that type of girl would look like, but she felt confident that it was pretty far from her own ‘I’m thinking about baby animals’ face. 

As her menacing guide, who also happened to smell really nice and look the epitome of tall, dark, and handsome, _facts that you aren’t going to think about!_ , turned down a corridor away from the entrance, she felt her shoulders droop.  As they walked, she moved farther and farther away from her freedom. _Maybe I could make a break for the front door?_

From the corner of her eye she saw his fingers flex and inch towards her forearm.  His pace had slowed until he no longer strode ahead of her, but instead walked side-by-side.  Getting dragged down a hallway by a man who didn’t even smile was very high on her list of things _not_ to do. _Ack, baby animals, baby animals!_ Nice aftershave did not necessarily equal a nice personality.  Slowly his hand drifted back to his side. 

After a few more minutes of walking in silence, Kaoru had just about had it.  She’d gone through her alphabetical baby animals list at least four times, along with her baby animal by size list, and she didn’t think she could take it any more. 

In the lying race she was a sprinter.  Very dangerous and successful over short distances, yes, but her face wasn’t made for marathon lies!  Plus she was still hyper from her fountain drink.  This being-with-another-person-yet-still-being-silent thing was killing her. 

_Tap. Tap. Tap, tap, tap-tap-tap,_ Kaoru fidgeted, drumming her finger against her leg nervously.  Perhaps it was ruining all of her ‘baby animal’ effort, but she wasn’t sure he’d bought it anyway.  _Oh, screw it._  

“My name’s Kaoru, by the way, if you were wondering.” He looked over at her, but kept on walking.  Kaoru mentally tightened her belt. One empty look wouldn’t keep her down.  “May I ask what’s yours?”

His lips parted slightly in what might have been a miniature sigh.  A few seconds later he answered, “Shinomori Aoshi, head of security.”  _Okay, not very comforting_ , Kaoru thought with a bubble of dread. 

“I’m really very sorry about this,” Kaoru apologized again.  “I swear I didn’t take or break anything” _I wish I could swear I didn’t fix anything either,_ “so if you could please let me go, or at least let me call my friend, we had an appointment for lunch, you see, I’d be really grateful.” 

“Hn,” was Mr. Shinomori’s only reaction. 

Kaoru, not fluent in male grunt-speak, was still trying to figure out an appropriate reply when they finally reached their destination.  The office held a number of expensive looking desks and chairs, along with several green, leafy potted plants.  A quick visual sweep of the room showed that they were the only occupants.  For a moment Kaoru had feared that she might be questioned by a crowd.

Another closed door at the back must have led to a private room.  She really hoped it wasn’t a jail cell.  Most of the desks were covered in stacks of folders and random knickknacks.  However, the desk he directed her toward was almost severely plain.  It was bare except for an ink blotter, a square steel paperweight, and a small fern in a bright blue pot painted with yellow sunflowers. 

Mr. Shinomori pulled an uncomfortable looking wooden chair away from the wall and placed it in front of the stark-looking desk.  Any man who kept such a happy looking pot on his desk couldn’t be all bad, she decided optimistically.

“Sit,” he ordered coldly.  It wasn’t the words he used, but the way he said them that changed Kaoru’s mind and made her want to shrivel up and disappear. Slowly she sat down, all the while desperately trying not to look over at the closed door in the back. 

Bunching the hem of her shirt in her hands, she tried to label the door as something innocuous.  After all, it could just be a bathroom.  Her cold nervousness disappeared as she remembered the euphoria of magical warmth bubbling in her veins.  Yes, it had to be a bathroom. Maybe it was even one of those fancy private bathrooms with a lounge chair for breastfeeding mothers. 

Stifling a smile at her ridiculous thoughts, Kaoru smoothed her hands down her thighs before folding them in her lap. Sneaking a peak at Mr. Shinomori, she saw him making his way around the desk to sit down.

Like any mother would want her baby around a man like that!  With one intimidating glare he would dry up her milk and then where would her hungry baby be?  Coughing into her hand to conceal her laughter, Kaoru got her expression under control just as he sat down in his chair.  She feared she might be a little drunk on the magic.  Hopefully she wouldn’t say anything she might regret later.

“Now,” Mr. Shinomori began, “why don’t you tell me what happened, starting from when you first entered the estate and going until-” he paused and glared at the fern in its yellow and blue pot.  Somehow, he must have only just noticed it.  Lips thinning in displeasure, he picked the plant up and practically hurled it at another desk across the room.  Kaoru tensed in expectation of hearing a loud crash as it shattered.  Miraculously, the pot only bounced once on the surface of the desk before wobbling to a stop against a stack of bubblegum pink folders, perfectly intact.

With awed eyes, Kaoru turned back and looked at him.  A crease formed between his brows when he saw her glance.  However, his voice sounded completely bland as he continued his prompting, “And going until I found you coming out of the weapons room.”

In reply, Kaoru’s stomach gurgled.  _Great, not only am I detained and having crazy euphoric mood swings, but now I’m also hungry._  Smiling apologetically, Kaoru began to spin a tale of going through a doorway to look at a vase, losing her tour group, and wandering around until she found the weapons room again and Mr. Shinomori leaning in the hallway outside.  No mention was made of fountains, gardens, or disappearing hallways.  When she finished, she looked into his guarded eyes and prayed that he’d bought it.

“Hn,” he said again.  A full minute of silence passed as Kaoru fidgeted in her chair.  Finally he spoke, “You need to be searched for anything you might have stolen, and then I have a few more questions.”

“I would never-!” Kaoru was in the midst of exclaiming when a white-bearded man wearing a red bandana bounced into the office.

“Well hello, you must be the lost lamb.”  The older gentleman said in a kind tone of voice.  “I hope you’re alright.”

“Why yes, thank you,” she replied politely in surprise. 

Before she could say any more, Mr. Shinomori interrupted her.  “Okina, call Omasu or Okon in.  I need Ms. Kamiya to be searched.”

_Wait, I never told him my last name,_ Kaoru thought in consternation.  _How did he…? Oh, right, the signup sheet at the museum._   

“Sorry, but all of the girls are out on a job,” apologized the courtly Okina.  “However, I would love to search the pretty young lady.  I promise to do a… thorough job, hehehe.”  A perverted smile suddenly stretched across Okina’s face.

Kaoru jumped out of her chair and backed away. “I really didn’t take anything, I swear!”  Okina inched closer.  “If you lay one finger on me I’m going to bite it off, respect for the elderly be damned,” Kaoru warned as she raised her hands defensively.

A hand suddenly grabbed the back of Okina’s collar and flung him across the room.  The old man gracefully twisted in midair and landed in a crouch.  “Okina,” Mr. Shinomori bit out, “doesn’t your charge need a reprimand for today’s disaster?”  Before the echoes of Mr. Shinomori’s voice had faded, the old man had disappeared.

“I apologize for my associate,” Mr. Shinomori said in a tone of voice that could almost be labeled as embarrassed, “while perverted, he’s also amazingly proficient and generally quite kind to guests.”

“Right,” Kaoru responded grudgingly.  “I’d really just like to leave, please.”

“I’m sorry, but I must insist you be searched first.”  Kaoru’s mouth set into mulish lines at his words.  “I promise that it will be completely professional.”  Mr. Shinomori looked directly into Kaoru’s eyes and vowed, “On my honor.”

Blowing her bangs off of her forehead, Kaoru gave in to his steely gaze. “Very well, but the minute I think you’re trying to cop a feel I’m going to hit first and ask questions later, clear?”

“As long as you accept that I do have to touch you to search you,” he answered. 

Nodding her head, she allowed him to lean her against the wall and begin searching her body.  There were a few times she tensed up and almost swung, but his touch always stayed impersonal, and he warned her of each new area before his hands swept over it.  In the end, he found nothing but lint, candy wrappers, and the head of a weed that had broken off in the garden and stuck to the back of her shirt.  Luck was with her when he tossed the plant into the trash after only a brief examination.

“Please sit back down,” he asked more politely.  Before he could begin his next round of questions, they heard a sudden commotion out in the hallway.  It sounded like a protesting male voice combined with the _click-clack_ of a confident woman walking in high heels. 

A moment later a blatantly embarrassed man wearing a security uniform appeared in the doorway.  “I’m sorry, sir.  I tried to get rid of her but-”

Two hands with nails painted cherry red popped into view and pushed the man out of the way.  Storming through the doorway strode a strikingly beautiful woman dressed in a doctor’s smock and designer heels.  “Kaoru!” the woman exclaimed as she rushed over to Kaoru’s side and began checking for signs of mistreatment.

“Megumi, Megumi, I’m fine.”  Grabbing the doctor’s hands, Kaoru met her concerned chestnut eyes, “Honestly.” 

Grabbing Kaoru’s shoulders, Megumi pulled her into a quick hug.  Then she stood up and leaned against the side of Kaoru’s chair, crossing her arms haughtily.  “Is she being charged with something?” Megumi asked Mr. Shinomori.  The embarrassed guard hovered in the doorway.

“No, we were just finishing up some questions,” he replied.

Kaoru huffed out a breath, feeling more confident with Megumi’s warm weight pressing into her shoulder.  “I’ve already told you everything.  I got lost, that’s it.  You’ve seen for yourself that I didn’t steal anything, and if I’d broken anything the people you sent out to look for me would have found it.”  That last part was a guess, but she remembered him mentioning something about, ‘ _we_ looked, but couldn’t find you.’  “I just want to leave.”

Keeping his same unruffled tone, he said, “You can leave after my questions have been satisfied.”

Megumi cleared her throat and uncrossed her arms, placing one warm hand on Kaoru’s shoulder.  “I’m afraid we’re going to have to insist on leaving now.  As she is not being charged for merely getting lost, and as she has completely cooperated in helping you to establish that no property was damaged, the charter law clearly states in article four that she should be free to leave.”  
            The tick of Megumi’s watch where it rested on Kaoru’s shoulder sounded loud in her ear as she waited for Mr. Shinomori’s reaction.  Finally he spoke, “You have quoted the law correctly, but do not believe this to be over until I have stated as much.”  Flicking his eyes to the man waiting in the doorway, he continued, “Officer Kojima will lead you out.”

Relief flooded through Kaoru in a torrent that left her knees momentarily too limp to stand.  “Thank you, Mr. Shinomori.  I really am sorry for the trouble.”  Hoping he was placated, Kaoru stood up and followed Megumi and Officer Kojima from the room. 

As they walked down the corridor, Kaoru asked Megumi how she had known to come. 

“You were late for lunch,” Megumi accused.

“I know, sorry,” Kaoru apologized.  As grateful as she was for Megumi’s rescue, a hungry Megumi meant bad news for everyone in her way, and now only Kaoru was left.

“Humph, well, when you didn’t show up I had a hunch and called museum security.  Imagine how surprised I was when they not only recognized your name, but told me you were being held by Shinomori Aoshi, the head of security for the entire Battousai Empire!  You haven’t even been here for twenty-four hours and already you’re famous!”

Kaoru winced at the heavy sarcasm.  “I’m sure people get lost all of the time.  They probably just overreacted.”  They continued talking as they exited the mansion and climbed into a dented dark green car smelling of stale take-out food.

Megumi snorted elegantly as she buckled her seatbelt.  “Note that I had to borrow this car from a friend so I could rush to your rescue, and for your information it was a male friend that I really did not want to owe a favor.”

“Ooh, is this that rooster-head you’re always complaining about?  The one with the cute butt?  The one who-” the force of Megumi’s glare convinced Kaoru to keep further comments to herself, at least until she was out of range of Megumi’s claws.

“After discovering your location,” Megumi continued loudly, “I rushed right over, and it looks like it’s a good thing I did.”  She sent a suspicious glance in Kaoru’s direction, but held her tongue until they were several blocks away from the Battousai Estate.  “You lied about something and that man knew it.  What kind of trouble have you gotten yourself into?”

Swallowing painfully, Kaoru was tempted to protest that none of it had been on purpose.  Opening her mouth, she froze as she wondered where to begin.  Megumi was her best friend.  She should tell her the truth. “I did lie, and I will tell you why, but not in the car.  Why don’t we pick up some food and go back to your apartment?  I promise I’ll tell you then.”  Food might help the truth seem more plausible, or at least blunt Megumi’s temper.

“Very well,” Megumi grudgingly consented, “but you are buying what is now considered DINNER.”

Kaoru agreed gratefully, “Done.”

Megumi called a noodle shop on her cell phone to order.  They picked the food up, with Kaoru slipping in a last minute dessert, and drove home.  In an attempt to ignore the appetizing aromas drifting out of the paper cartons, Kaoru asked Megumi a question that had been on her mind since leaving Mr. Shinomori’s office.  “Megumi, how did you know which article of charter to quote?”

A foxy laugh escaped Megumi as she drove.  “When I first moved to the city, I flirted with the idea of becoming a lawyer instead of a doctor.  Then I figured out that I enjoyed flirting with the lawyers more than actually studying to be one, so I switched back to medicine.  Some of it stuck, though.”  Kaoru laughed.  “Besides, it comes in handy with delinquent friends.”

“Hey!” protested Kaoru.

Ignoring her, Megumi continued speaking, “Who would have thought that the great Takani Megumi would ever have delinquent friends, plural?  It’s a sad world we live in.”

            Pulling up in front of Megumi’s building, they parked and carried the food up to her fourth floor apartment.  As they ate their noodles, Kaoru haltingly unfolded the tale of her adventure with getting lost and finding the fountain, skimming quickly over the panic that had induced her discovery of the secret passageway in the first place.  At the end of her tale, Kaoru answered as best she could Megumi’s questions about the garden and Kaoru’s reaction to the magic.  Exhausted, she hoped they were finally done.

Instead, Megumi launched one more question about the part Kaoru had hoped she’d forgotten.  “The panic hasn’t gone away, has it?  You told me that the fear had stopped,” Megumi accused.  “You told me it had gotten better.”

“It has gotten better,” Kaoru defended.  “I couldn’t even go outside at first, remember?  But now I’m fine in small groups, it was just getting trapped against the wall by a bunch of tall, sweaty boys.  Anyone would find that unpleasant.”

Sighing, Megumi seemed to accept her explanation for now.  “Just don’t lie to me about it again.” 

Kaoru contritely agreed, “I won’t, I promise.”

“Fine, but one last question. Now, tell me truthfully-” Kaoru waited anxiously for Megumi’s query.  Her tone of voice sounded so serious. “If those sweaty boys had been shirtless and facing you instead of turned away, would you still have found it unpleasant?”

It took Kaoru a moment to process what Megumi had just said, but once she did, she let out a war cry and launched a violent pillow attack.  Ten minutes later, the two of them lay on their backs breathing heavily. 

“Ha,” Kaoru panted, “teach you to mess with me again.”

“Come over here and say that to my face,” gasped Megumi from her position on the other side of the coffee table.

“Oh yeah? I can still take you, even with one hand tied behind my back,” Kaoru taunted breathlessly, flinging one hand over her head to prove her point.  Unfortunately, her flailing fist bumped into the coffee table and knocked over the precariously balanced container of hazelnut chocolate sauce that had come with their dessert. 

“My white carpet!” exclaimed Megumi.

“Don’t worry,” Kaoru soothed, “I think it all landed on my shirt.”

Megumi sighed, “Oh good.”

Kaoru looked up at where a giant-looking Megumi was standing over her prone body, wiping off the remaining puddle on the table, and giggled.  “Help, I don’t think I can get up without spilling!”

It took some skillful maneuvering, but with the aid of a strategically placed dishtowel they managed to finally make it safely into the kitchen. When they realized that holding the shirt out from Kaoru’s body and squirting it off into the sink was only making more of a mess, they decided to just take it off.  It took delicate handling to carefully slide the shirt off Kaoru’s head without getting any chocolate into her hair.  Still, its removal did leave a film of hazelnut chocolate on her nose and cheeks.  “If only my tongue were longer,” Kaoru bemoaned jokingly. 

“At least your bra survived.  Is that black silk embroidered with, are those jasmine flowers? My, my, Kaoru, I had no idea you were _that_ kind of girl.”  Megumi laughed foxily as Kaoru’s face flushed red.

Crossing her arms huffily, but carefully because they were wet and still had flecks of chocolate sauce here and there, Kaoru rejoined, “Well, we all know what kind of girl you are without even having to see your underwear!”

  “Yes, a girl with class,” she replied without missing a beat.  “Go wash your face off in the bathroom sink,” Megumi ordered into Kaoru’s fuming silence. “I’ll finish rinsing your shirt off here.”

Stalking into the bathroom, Kaoru grabbed Megumi’s personal washcloth, _take that!,_ and washed the splatters of chocolate off her arms.  Then she cupped the water into her hands and splashed her face several times, scrubbing gently to remove the chocolate residue.  Blindly, she scrabbled at the wall until she found a terrycloth towel to dry off her face. 

Twisting side-to-side in the mirror, she checked to see that all of the chocolate had been washed off.  She yawned tiredly at her reflection and removed the elastic from her hair.  This entire day had been exhausting, but at least it was over now.  Scrubbing her hands against her scalp, she wondered if Megumi would mind if she took a shower.

A sudden loud knocking interrupted her musings.  Peeking her head out the bathroom door, Kaoru heard a soft masculine voice say something, and Megumi reply in an upset tone of voice.  Kaoru refused to cower in the bathroom if there was trouble, but she was dressed only in pants and a bra. 

Her suitcase was still in the living room, so she couldn’t get a shirt from there.  There was also no way to make it into Megumi’s room without being seen.  _What a horribly constructed apartment!_ she thought in frustration.

Glancing around the bathroom, she realized that she had two options:  the wet towel or Megumi’s blue satin bathrobe.  Kaoru didn’t need more than a split-second to decide.  Slipping into the slinky bathrobe, she quickly tied the sash and dashed into the living room.  It was only when Megumi came out of the entryway that Kaoru realized that the hallway’s sharp turn by the front door would have concealed most of the living room from view, including her suitcase.  Already committed, she decided to brazen it out, even if her slippery sash was starting to come untied. 

Tightening the knot again, Kaoru stepped forward and asked, “Is there a problem?” Megumi stomped into the room with compressed lips and an angry face.  In one red-tipped hand she clenched a snow-white envelope bearing several impressive seals. A breathtakingly handsome man that Kaoru assumed from his manner to be either a messenger or a servant followed humbly at her heels. 

When Kaoru crossed her arms, his lilac-colored eyes immediately latched onto her satin-clad body.  For a second she saw his face fiercely burn with some exultant emotion. Stumbling back, she felt the air seize in her throat.  _Who was he?_   In the blink of an eye, his mild features returned and he turned to Megumi.  Kaoru decided that she had just imagined it.

“As you can see from the letter, there is no mistake,” he explained.  “As per article nine, section twenty-six of the charter, Kamiya Kaoru has been claimed by the Battousai Estate.”  Kaoru felt the blood drain from her face as she clenched her hands into the satin robe.  “It is all very clear and aboveboard.”  He turned to face Kaoru, “If you would gather your things and come with me. Kaoru.”  The way his voice paused before caressed the syllables of her name sent a shudder through Kaoru’s body.  For a moment she wondered if being claimed would be such a bad thing.

“No,” Megumi denied in a ringing voice as she paced across the living room reading an official looking document, waking Kaoru from her momentary bedazzlement.  “No, there is a way out of this. There has to be.”

“I’m sorry,” he said gently but forcefully, “the laws are quite clear.”

Stopping in mid-pace, Megumi flung the letter at the messenger, twirled around, and marched over to Kaoru.  The red-haired messenger effortlessly caught the letter and refolded it. Meanwhile, Megumi had wrapped her arm firmly around Kaoru’s waist, manicured nails digging slightly into Kaoru's side.  “You said article nine, which means that according to subsection twent-” Megumi’s face twisted in up in intense concentration, “twenty-two, you can’t have her.”  She smiled victoriously, “It states that if the aforementioned person is already another citizen’s contracted spouse or concubine, he or she cannot be claimed by an outside house.  Kaoru is my concubine.”

After making this startling announcement, Megumi grabbed Kaoru’s chin in her red-painted fingertips and kissed her.  Shock froze Kaoru’s eyes open wide.  She’d never kissed a girl before, had never even thought of it. She and Megumi were good friends, but in a purely platonic way!  It took a pinch from the sharp nails curled around her waist to prompt Kaoru to snap her eyes shut. 

Although Megumi was a disturbingly good kisser, Kaoru couldn’t relax.  In matters of intimacy, Kaoru had always been very private. Only shock and the thought of being claimed like a _thing_ kept her immobile. However, as the kiss went on she wasn’t sure what embarrassed her more: the fact that it was the first time she’d ever been kissed by a girl, or the fact that the sexy, red-headed servant was watching them kiss. 

Kaoru was starting to feel light-headed from lack of air.  She could also tell that the knot of her belt had come loose again.  At last, Megumi pulled back with an audible _smack_ of parting lips.  Rotating to face the messenger head-on, Megumi waited for his reaction.

His sculpted face was perfectly blank, but some powerful emotion roiled and seethed beneath the skin.  “An… interesting demonstration. Nonetheless, you are going to have to come down to city hall and furbish corroborating documentation before you are to be believed.  Several forms of waiver will also have to be signed,” he courteously explained, though there was something wild in his eyes didn’t match his tone of voice.

“Fine,” Megumi snapped with the light of battle in her eyes. “Let’s go.”  Snatching up her designer jacket and purse, she marched to the door.  The lilac-eyed servant meekly followed. Kaoru only relaxed when she heard the click of the lock around the bend of the hall. 

The sash to her satin bathrobe had slithered onto the floor during Megumi’s kiss, but Kaoru was still too stunned to bend over and pick it up.  Tightening her arms around her body to close the robe’s gap, she nibbled nervously on her lower lip.  Outside the window, she saw Megumi get into an expensive looking black car that almost looked on fire in the reflected orange light of the setting sun. 

For some reason, the silhouette of the man holding Megumi’s door looked off.  It wavered like a reflection on the surface of a river, one moment seeming to be the messenger she’d just met and the next almost disappearing.  The messenger closed Megumi’s door, looked up at Kaoru, and smirked.  Then his image began wavering again and blinked out of existence.  Kaoru felt herself gaping.

A rustle of paper from the empty room at her back made Kaoru twist away from the window, startled.  On the other side of the couch stood the auburn-haired servant, hand poised over the glass coffee table where he’d just dropped the letter he had come to deliver, the letter claiming her as his to take.  Blazing gold eyes clashed with blue, and Kaoru felt the very air quiver. He had never left.  The sound of the lock turning had been this man locking them in and everyone else out.

_This was no servant, this was the master himself!_


	3. Palm to Palm

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Disclaimer: Rurouni Kenshin does not belong to me. If it did, I’d open a nightclub with platforms for go-go dancers. Then instead of scantily clad women, I’d make the men of RK get up there and strut their stuff. Oooh, we could even have theme nights with different outfits! Like Pirate!Kenshin, Cowboy!Sano, Punk!Aoshi, or even The Village People – RK style! 
> 
> Dictionary:  
> Koi – Depending on the kanji used it can mean: carp – a fish found in ornamental ponds; love or tender passion; and a bunch of other things that aren’t used here… yet.

Fire licked just below her skin as his amber gaze devoured her body, moving slowly down the folds of her blue satin robe which rippled with each panting breath she took.  The arms she had folded across her chest seemed a insubstantial barrier against his possessive stare.  His blatant perusal extended down to her bare toes curling shyly into the carpet before moving even more slowly back up her jean-clad legs until he finally paused at her parted lips.  Every inch of her skin felt sensitive, vulnerable, and desired. 

For a moment Kaoru swayed forward.  Then her stubbornness, independence, and anxiety kicked in and she took a step back.  “Who are you?” she demanded shakily.

His heavy-lidded eyes were dilated black and ringed with a thin band of molten gold as he drank her in.  “You know who I am, Kaoru,” he told her huskily as his eyes climbed up from her lips to meet her own.  “You summoned me.  You woke my fountain and healed my garden.” 

 “I don’t know what you’re talking about,” she protested.  But she did, oh she did.

Slowly he stalked her around the edge of the glass coffee table. “You passed the test.  Your blood and tears sealed the contract. As promised, I am yours and you – you are mine.” 

Kaoru retreated another step, only to find her back pressed against the chilly glass of the window.  “I think you have the wrong girl.” She didn’t remember any test or contract.  Whatever she may or may not have done had been an ignorant accident.  No matter how her heart pounded at the thought of having this beautiful man as hers, this had to be a mistake.  Besides, she didn’t want to be owned.  _Do I?_

“Did you think I wouldn’t notice the door to the garden left open, left open in a wall that has had no door for over a hundred years? A garden that I personally made inaccessible?  Of course I noticed.” He took a step forward, “Did you think I wouldn’t find you?”  His voice had deepened to almost a bass rumble by his last sentence.

Taking a deep breath, Kaoru ignored the small curious voice in the back of her mind that wondered just how old he really was, firmed her resolve, and pointed at the door imperiously.  She would not be intimidated. “You’ve made a mistake.  You can either leave now or I can force you to leave.  Of course, you’ll be bloody and unconscious with the second option, so I suggest you chose the first.”

His eyes flashed angrily at her words.  Fire jumped and crackled beneath her skin.  Kaoru was willing to back up her threat, but suddenly she doubted that she’d be successful.  The worst part was that a traitorous part of her body didn’t want her to be successful. 

“Do not play games with me, Kaoru,” he practically growled.  The curtains bracketing her body shivered at the power behind his words.

It frightened her, but this was a physical fear, one she could confront.  Snatching up Megumi’s antique crystal vase from the bookshelf next to the window, Kaoru cocked her arm back and narrowed her own eyes.  “Don’t-” she had to pause and swallow to moisten her mouth, “don’t you dare threaten me.”  The air felt heavy and she was finding it more and more difficult to breath.  What breath she could take smelled like the sun, a blistering heat instead of gentle warmth.

This was magic.  Kaoru didn’t know how to deal with magic.  The vase clutched in her fist shook slightly, but nevertheless she took a step away from the window and raised it threateningly. For a moment the fire in his eyes blazed brighter as wisps of his red hair began to dance in an unseen wind.  She could feel the curtains behind her flailing in the breeze and her own hair slapping against her back.

Suddenly, he took a step back and closed his eyes.  White-knuckled fists clenched at his sides as the wind disappeared along with the heavy feeling in the air.  When he opened his eyes again, they were the lilac she had first seen him with.  “I am sorry. I did not mean to frighten you.”  He let out a rueful laugh and rubbed his forehead.  “This is not how I planned our first meeting.” Seeing her skeptical face and the sparkling vase still clutched in one hand, he continued his reassurances. “I would never hurt you.” His eyes flashed with some painful memory when he vowed, “Never intentionally, not if it is in my power to prevent, I swear it.”

With the sincerity pouring off of him in waves, Kaoru could not help but believe him.  She was an optimist at heart.  If given the choice, she always preferred to believe the best of people.  Of course, Megumi swore it would get her killed one day. 

“Very well,” Kaoru sighed out before straightening assertively, “But I wasn’t frightened.”  Lying brazenly, she returned the delicate and expensive vase to its shelf. “I was just angry.”  Turning back to him, she put one hand on her hip confidently and waited for his reply.

At first his lips seemed to be twitching with humor, but then his eyes darkened to a velvety purple and he licked his lips.  “Why don’t I make us some tea and then we’ll talk.” As he disappeared into the kitchen she heard his voice drift out, “Jasmine is my favorite flower.”

“Wha-?” she asked in confusion at his non sequitur.  Then she looked down and realized that the way she stood clearly exposed her black satin bra and its delicate embroidery of pale yellow Jasmine flowers. Gasping in embarrassment, she closed her robe and scrambled over to the corner of the living room where her luggage should be.  _Should be_ because it wasn’t there.  It had disappeared. 

Vaguely remembering the tie to her robe dropping when Megumi had kissed her, she hurried over to that spot on the floor.  Nothing was there.  Dropping to her knees, she looked under the couch, table, and chairs, her unbound midnight hair tangling and pooling on the floor by her side.

“Koi, are you purposely trying to kill me?” purred the husky voice of her mysterious stranger from the kitchen doorway. 

_He can’t be done already, he just went in there!  I didn’t even hear the teapot whistle!_   Kaoru thought frantically from her position down on Megumi’s white carpet.  Looking up at his face, smoldering with restrained passion, she had a brief flash of how she must look from his perspective – crouched on all fours with her sapphire blue robe falling on either side of her body, framing the milk-pale skin of her breasts where they practically fell out of her black bra.

Squeaking and launching herself up off the floor, she closed her robe. “Is the tea done already?”

A smirk curled his lips as he set the tea tray down on the table without so much as a click.  It was Megumi’s best china. He’d even managed to unearth a tea cozy from somewhere.  “Yes, I-" a twist of his fingers and suddenly an orb of rose tinted light appeared in his hand and twirled around his fingers, then disappeared with a faint _pop_ , “hurried things along.  I hope you don’t mind.”

Flustered, Kaoru sat down on the edge of the couch.  “No, no I don’t min- hey,” she looked up and scowled, “did you do something to my luggage?”

He only smiled mysteriously and repeated, “Jasmine is my favorite flower, koi.”

Kaoru irately jumped up from her seat, but made sure to keep her robe closed. “Did you just call me a carp?!” she asked indignantly.  “You did! You called me a fish!”

A surprised laugh escaped his lips.  It was joyous and masculine and sent sparks racing through her veins. “There is more than one meaning to the word **koi** ,” he told her affectionately.  Pouring a stream of fragrant tea into a delicate teacup, he carefully handed it to her.  “Such as love… or tender passion.”

Sinking back down onto the couch, Kaoru blushed.  Not meeting his eyes, she took a sip of her golden yellow tea.  It tasted of jasmine blossoms and moonlight.  Megumi didn’t have tea like this, so it must have been something this stranger had brought. Or conjured.  The warm taste of the tea soothed her, and in a suddenly comfortable silence they both slowly drained their teacups.

A contented sigh escaped Kaoru’s lips as she set her empty cup onto the coffee table and leaned back.  Glancing over at her auburn-haired stranger, she repeated her first question, the question that had been bouncing back and forth in her mind since he’d appeared with his letter, the letter that now lay so innocently in the middle of the coffee table.  Biting her lip, she forced her mouth to ask the question that she suspected she already knew the answer to.  “Who are you?”

Setting his cup down noiselessly, he turned toward her and answered her with a question of his own.  “Who do you _think_ I am?”  His face was serene, but his eyes were a lazy, contemplative yellow-gold, like a mountain lion she’d seen once while hiking.  This man was far from tame, but for some reason he seemed to want her attention, want her – dare she think it – love? 

“You-” she moistened her lips, “you’re Lord Battousai.”

“Correct,” he praised gently.  This man with his feline grace and long red hair was a far cry from her imagining of the Battousai’s likeness in the museum tour van.  “Now, who do you _know_ I am?”

Confused, Kaoru felt her forehead wrinkle, “I- I don’t understand.”

In the silence following her statement, his shadowed purple eyes scoured her face, looking for more answers that she didn’t have to give. “Don’t you?” he asked almost sadly.  Standing up, he returned their used teacups to the tray and carried it into the kitchen.  Anxiously, Kaoru stood up and half followed him until she had a clear view of what he was doing in there.  He stood in the middle of the kitchen taking off his jacket, unbuttoning his cuffs, and rolling his white sleeves up his muscled forearms.  Ignoring her hesitant form hovering in the doorway, he turned on the hot water and picked up the sponge.

She had been so focused on the blazing energy of his face that she hadn’t until this moment of repose noticed his clothing at all.  His expertly tailored navy blue slacks and white dress shirt were only a civilized veneer that failed to completely conceal his aura of barely restrained wildness.

As he methodically washed the dishes in the kitchen sink, muscles rippled and flexed across his shoulders and back. Kaoru felt her breath catch in her throat. It was odd that even though he was wearing such clothes and doing such a mundane task, he still seemed to be the most dangerous and fascinating man she had ever met. 

The rush of water was the only sound in the quiet apartment. Distantly, Kaoru thought about going into Megumi’s room to find herself a shirt, but something held her back.  Lord Battousai’s eyes had been so sad and pleading that she could not bring herself to physically leave his presence, even though he wasn’t looking directly at her anymore.  It sounded ridiculous when put that way, but there it was. 

As he washed, she felt her anger and anxiety subsiding beneath the slow boil of her curiosity.  _Why and how did he expect me to know his name?  What was this law that allowed his house to claim me for itself? And what exactly had happened in that garden?_

When the last porcelain teacup had been dried and put away and the mysterious tea cozy had disappeared into whatever cupboard it had come from, Lord Battousai padded back into the living room.  He stopped only a few feet across from Kaoru, tilted his head, and looked deep into her eyes as if peering into her soul.  “You aren’t used to magic, are you?”

“No,” she answered with a small, sheepish smile and looked down, “they don’t use it much where I come from.”  Looking back up into his indigo eyes, she asked, “Is that why your eyes keep changing color?” 

She had thought that her question would make him smile, but his face remained serious. “Yes, does it bother you?”

“No.  I feel like it should, but for some strange reason it doesn’t.”  His lips twitched into an almost smile.  “I’m sorry if that is too much honesty.  Megumi says that sometimes I don’t know how to edit very well. Since you don’t even know me, I should probably try to be more polite.”  _Of course,_ a cynical voice whispered in the back of her head, _if he hadn’t burst into the apartment and tried to claim me like an object, I might have less trouble remembering my manners._

“There is no such thing as too much honesty between us,” he replied with an intensity of expression that stole Kaoru’s breath away.  He stepped closer. “Did you know that my city whispers your life in my ear? It sings to me, soft but sweet, of the tales your blood, sweat, saliva, and tears imbued into the earth and water.  Of the magic of your spirit.  Like a boy who has sat for years at his grandfather’s knee, hearing tales of a goddess from above, so has your life story been to me these past hours.  I know you, Kamiya Kaoru. I know you.” His courtly turn of phrase revealed his birth in a time far removed from her own.

Unnerved, Kaoru fell back on denials.  “I am no goddess and I don’t have any magic.  I really do think you’ve made a mistake.”

This time, her denials were met with neither anger nor sadness, only determination.  “Do you deny your presence in my garden?”

“I’ll admit that I was there, and I’ll even go so far as to say that there might have been… bodily fluids involved.”  Kaoru knew she was stumbling over her thoughts, but his unblinking stare made her nervous.  “However, whatever happened was unintentional.  Any magic that occurred didn’t happen because of me, it just… happened.  Then I left.”  Silhouetted against the night-blackened window, his face was unreadable.  Kaoru continued in the hope of convincing him. “I’m sorry I left your door open, my mother taught me better manners than that. Please forgive me.”

“You admit that you have little experience with magic, yes?”

“Yes,” she cautiously replied, not sure where he was going with this.

“When you were in my garden, do you remember making a wish or voicing a hope to bring the fountain back to life, even if it was only in your mind?”  His waited patiently for her, seemingly confident in her response.  It made her nervous.

“Noo,” she drawled thoughtfully, “no I don’t remember any-” Suddenly, her mind flashed back to the moment before she had bit her tongue and the fountain had come alive.  What had she been doing?

_Rolling over, she had placed her chin on her folded, grimy hands and stared at the fountain._ **I want you to work.**

And then there had been the door appearing in the wall - the same wall she had already examined a hundred times.  Collapsing against a pillar, she had whispered into the air, _“Please, I’m tired.  I’m late and I need to go.”_ After her words, she had received a rush of energy and the door had appeared.

Guiltily, she glanced at the floor. “Alright, I guess I did do something like that once or twice.”

“That was when you invoked your magic,” he explained.

Kaoru looked up in frustration, “But I think and say things like that all of the time!  And nothing magical has ever happened because of it!”

Patiently he explained, “That’s because my house is built in the center of, for lack of a better explanation, a well of magic.  You had more to draw from and it was easier for your talent to,” he paused for a moment as if grasping at words, “quickly pull up the bucket full of power.”

Kaoru’s chin remained tilted stubbornly.  She didn’t want this to be happening and she didn’t understand it. For those reasons, and several others, it wasn’t going to happen.  _End of story._

Taking another step closer, he continued his argument. “When you made your first wish, the magic asked something of you and offered something in return.”

She remembered, _rising to her knees, she crawled forward.  Something was prompting her to crawl into the fountain. It promised that it would make the fountain work again, it would make her life work again._

“You agreed,” and now his voice was inexorable, “and you sealed the contract.  That not only the fountain but also the surrounding garden now lives and thrives is proof of that.”

Each word he spoke was a hammer strike against the shell of her convictions, breaking her certainty that she could forget the events of the day and continue on with her normal life, cracking her confidence that there would be an escape.

“I swore to heal this city,” he told her, his voice swelling with emotion. “I wrote into law my claim to every woman not bound who can so much as touch the magic grid that maintains this city.  Over the years my estate has claimed many women, but even the most powerful could do no more than mend a crack in the sidewalk.  But you, you, my magnificent one, restored my fountain and the entire garden.”

“So that’s it?  I’m to be claimed like all of those other countless women? I’m not even from this city.  And what are _you_ doing here,” Kaoru lashed out, not sure why she felt a sting from his explanation, only knowing that she had to keep yelling or else acknowledge the pricking feeling wanting to make itself known in the corner of her eyes.  “Shouldn’t some minion from your estate be here claiming me instead?  Or should I be honored that you took time out of your busy schedule to come and collect little ol’ me?” 

A frustrated snarl ripped out of his throat, but Kaoru, fool that she was, counted on his earlier promise not to hurt her to keep her safe.  Besides, she was too angry to back down now.

When he finally calmed down enough to speak intelligibly, Lord Battousai bit out, “You are the first, and will be the last, woman I will ever claim for myself.  I know you, Kaoru, you resonate inside my soul, and no matter how stubborn you try to be, you know that if you look deep enough you will find me and my magic staring back at you.  The contract has been made! Before the ink of night has dried into dawn we **will** finalize this bond.”

“What do I know of magic and contracts?” Kaoru said quietly as she felt herself drowning under his conviction. “I am a stranger to such things.  I am a stranger to you.”

Swallowing harshly, his voice gentled and turned pleading.  “That garden was my sanctuary – the only place of peace for a damned soul like me. When I gave up hope, so many years ago, the garden and fountain died.  I’ve done my duty since then and protected this city, but I’ve been barren inside.  You brought me back to life.  I can taste your magic, your character, your blood in my very soul. When you bound yourself to my garden you bound yourself to me.  I won’t let you go, koi. I can’t.”

“You don’t have me,” Kaoru whispered in despair, one hand wrapped around her middle to keep her robe in place and the other held out pleadingly.  She was so lost.  Her hand dropped to her side.

“If you can’t trust me,” his gaze had once again gone inscrutable, “do you trust yourself?” 

A montage of the many instances where her mind or body had betrayed her flashed through her mind, but at the bottom of it all rested a solid base of discipline and honor that she had forged throughout her life.  “Yes, I do,” Kaoru answered steadily. 

“Then take my hand,” he requested intently, extending it toward her with his palm facing up.  “Feel my magic, my aura, and then tell me true if I am still a stranger, if you still don’t know me.”  His eyes were deep wells of need slowly sucking her in, yet still she hesitated.

“Only let me touch your hand,” he bargained, “and if you call me stranger still I will leave you in peace.” 

Still lost in his eyes, she saw something dark and desperate flash that made her doubt his assertion.  Nevertheless, she slowly stretched out her hand and, nibbling nervously on her lower lip, fused her palm against his. 

Not even a split-second passed between the kiss of their hands and the noiseless surge of lightning that flared through the room and blew out the lights in a tinkling rain of glass and firefly sparks.  In the darkness, she felt her mouth fill with the sweetness of sunlight.  A wind like soft fur brushed against her skin and she could smell sun-warmed grasses. 

Startled, she saw a glow emanating from their clasped fingers.  The glow was white, but not.  Behind her eyes she saw the white light for what it truly was – the entire spectrum of discrete colors reflected and melded into a single whole. In this dim light she could faintly make out his face, stripped raw of pretenses and burning with emotion, with power.  Soon the sunlight flavor had sound, like the tinkling of wind-blown aspens, and its tang faded from her mouth. 

A beat as she marveled, and then her mouth flooded with the spiciness of gingersnaps.  The taste reminded her of childhood, how after an afternoon of practicing in the dojo with her father, she would come inside to find her mother waiting with a tall glass of milk and a plate of gingersnap cookies fresh from the oven.  It reminded her of how she had taken for granted the feelings of absolute love and security she had felt when both of her parents had still been alive.  Gingersnaps were the taste of coming home.

Kaoru felt giddy, joyous, and complete.  Magic fizzed in her veins.  And she _knew_ him.  She _knew_ this man standing with her palm-to-palm.  He was fire and steel and passion and comfort.  He was- “Kenshin,” she whispered.

“What,” he asked in an unsteady voice both exultant and fearful, “what did you say?”

“You,” Kaoru said wonderingly, “your name is Kenshin.”

Throwing his free arm around her waist, Kenshin let out a triumphant laugh and began spinning Kaoru around the living room.  Unable to help herself, she found her elated laughter joining his as they twirled around the room.  Her still tingling hand was cradled against Kenshin’s heart, and she could feel the heat of his skin burning through the thin white shirt. Their mad revolutions slowing, Kaoru found herself smiling helplessly up into his exultant eyes. 

When they swayed to a stop, it seemed only natural to lift herself up those few remaining inches and seal her lips against his in a kiss, her movement trapping their still glowing hands between their bodies. 

Kenshin’s lips were softer than she expected and slightly moist.  Their lips touched and clung together.  Kaoru felt like every cell in her body was setting off sparklers in radiant showers of stars. 

Then the hand he had clasped around her waist during their impromptu dance began tracing slowly up the bumps of her spine, pausing a second to outline her bra strap thoughtfully through the satin of her bathrobe before continuing its meandering journey. His talented fingers reached their destination and massaged the nape of her neck, sending tingles of delight across her hypersensitive skin.  Kaoru tilted her head back against his hand and smiled against his lips. His calloused fingers tunneled through her thick hair, rubbing the strands between his fingers lovingly. 

Unwilling to be a passive participant, Kaoru’s free hand worked its way up his firm arm and caressingly across the muscled shoulders that she’d so admired earlier when he’d been washing the dishes.  Opening her mouth, she sucked his lower lip into her mouth and nibbled.  A groan of masculine desire escaped his throat and vibrated against her teeth and though the hand clasped against his chest.  Her body shivered in response.

Opening his mouth wider, Kenshin tightened his grip in her hair and tilted her head back, dominating the kiss.  His tongue swept through her mouth hungrily.

Kaoru felt the back of his hand trapped between their chests begin rubbing back and forth against the peaks of her breasts.  Her robe parted and the feel of his skin sliding from satin to skin to satin felt magnified. Each brush of his knuckles against her curves made the throbbing at her core more insistent, pushing her closer and closer to combustion.

Twisting against him in a flame of desire, Kaoru moaned.  His kiss was perfect – hard and sizzling and hungry and possessive.

She had never known a kiss could be like this, had never wanted a kiss to be like this. 

Raking her fingers down Kenshin’s spine, Kaoru grasped the edge of his shirt and yanked.  Finding an opening, she inserted her fingers up underneath the cloth. His skin felt like silken sheets warmed by the noonday sun.  Purring into his mouth, she splayed her fingers against the smooth skin between his shoulder blades.  His lips left her mouth and trailed kisses across her face and down her arched throat. Kaoru felt herself melting into his hard body as she became consumed by his golden fire.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Did the chapter title make anyone think of Romeo and Juliet? I will put a synopsis of my actual dream at the end of the next chapter for your edification. Rereading this chapter, I realize that Kenshin has a Jareth from The Labyrinth moment. Oh well. What can I say? The Labyrinth is fun and the last chapter I read of “The End of Days” by dansemacabre is so sizzling that I had to take a cold shower just to regain my composure.


	4. Koi!

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Disclaimer: Rurouni Kenshin does not belong to me. If it did, the characters would probably kill me to keep the sexual tension from killing them.
> 
> AN: WARNING for MATURE content ahead, so if you are offended by dirty talk or sexual actions (but no actual sex) skip the entire middle section of the chapter! You have been warned. Please don’t use this as an excuse to read only the middle section, though.  
> I am playing with time again in this chapter. I put a synopsis of my actual dream at the end of this chapter for your edification. Enjoy!
> 
> Dictionary:  
> Koi – Depending on the kanji used it can mean: carp – a fish found in ornamental ponds; love, tender passion; the command form of the verb kuru – to come; (and a bunch of other things that aren’t used here… yet.)

Air sparked and hissed when Kaoru broke open the seal on the crumpled envelope.  It was hard to believe that less than twelve hours before she’d been fervently kissing the man she was now running away from.  At least, she was _trying_ to run away from him, whether she was successful or not remained to be seen. 

Kaoru’s nerves were strung so tight she feared she might break into out of control giggling or screaming at any moment.  The paper bent more under her fierce grip.  Heart pounding with anxiety, she read the name she must speak, the name that would be the means of her escape, the name Megumi had painstakingly inked after warning Kaoru to use it only in the direst of emergencies. Kaoru read the name from the envelope silently.  Then she laughed out loud. 

Placing a hand over her lips to muffle her snickers, she glanced around to see if anyone had heard her slightly hysterical outburst.  She hadn’t meant to laugh; she was just so surprised to see that name after all of Megumi’s crabby comments.  The morning sun reflected blindingly off of the white stone driveway of the Battousai estate.  It seemed to be nearly empty.  The only person in sight was the gate guard and he faced the other direction. 

Taking a couple of deep breaths in an attempt to calm down, Kaoru knew she had to stop dawdling or else risk getting caught and hauled back inside.  Clearing her throat, she quietly read the words on the card out loud, “Take me to Sagara Sanosuke.”

A warm mist poured from the card and engulfed her body.  She felt herself becoming fog. Limbs merged into a single pillar of glistening gray and started to drift away on the breeze. But then something searingly hot caught at the soles of her feet, locking her to the ground.  Pulling and twisting her legs with all of her might, she freed one foot.  By this time the guard at the gate had noticed something and was yelling into his radio.  Scraping her free toe against the heel of her bound shoe frantically, she managed to pry her other foot out, leaving her shoe stuck in the spell meant to prevent her escape. 

_Cinderella has left the building,_ she exulted as her body streamed away into the city.  That thought was quickly followed by the depressing realization of how utterly unlikely she was to find a happily ever after. She didn’t want the prince to search house to house for his lost love.  As a matter of fact, she hoped he never found her shoe in the first place.  

Besides which, on the flip side of that saying, didn’t Elvis, that famous singer from overseas, die from overdosing on drugs because the pressure of fame was too much? Kaoru just wasn’t cut out to be a princess _or_ a public figure.  Maybe she could help heal the city and wake up the outer sections from afar, but as much as she was drawn to Kenshin, she couldn’t stay here and be what he wanted.  She’d told him she was a private person! 

Best case fairytale scenario had Kenshin becoming a turnip farmer or stock broker in some isolated cabin where she could fortuitously find him, marry him, and then live comfortably together with him without things like pesky parades getting in their way.

Why couldn’t Kenshin have been content with kissing her in Megumi’s apartment?  That kiss, and the things that had followed, had been pretty darn sizzling in Kaoru’s book.  But no, the flame-haired hunk had to ruin it by insisting on a big public presentation. 

As she phased through the indistinct shapes of buildings, trees, and people, Kaoru found her mind drifting to memories of the night before.

_Purring into Kenshin’s mouth, she splayed her fingers against the smooth skin between his shoulder blades.  His lips left her mouth and trailed kisses across her face and down her arched throat. Kaoru felt herself melting into his hard body as she became consumed by his golden fire._

His teeth scraped across the cords of her throat, nibbling up and down, up and down, going farther with each cycle until his lips reached the shell of her ear and lingered.  Tilting her head back to give him better access, Kaoru combed her fingers down his back, circling with her thumb any patch of skin that caught her fancy. 

A hot tongue curled around her earlobe.  Then Kenshin leaned back slightly and blew into her ear.  Kaoru gasped and jerked in surprise, digging her fingers into his muscled back. 

“Ah koi, where else are you sensitive?” he laughed huskily.

Kenshin’s hands massaged her lower back, gathering and twisting her blue satin robe, winding it round and round his fist until the edges tugged out from between their bodies and pulled tight beneath her arms, baring the skin of her stomach and sides.  The calloused pad of his thumb, the only part of his hands still unbound, rasped over the naked skin of her side in contrast to the slide of his satin-wrapped knuckles.  An involuntary purr escaped her throat and she bit her lip. 

Kenshin whispered into her ear, “Don’t… you’ll damage your perfect, kissable lips.  From now on, let me do the nibbling.”  Velvet lips left her earlobe and traveled over her cheekbones.  “And the biting,” he kissed her cheek and moved to nip the tip of her nose, “and the licking.” He hovered over her eagerly parted lips. 

In the dark she could barely make out the predatory yellow-gold gleam in his eyes.  The lack of vision amplified her other senses, allowing his words to slither into her ears and straight down to her center. “When I slide into you,” he breathed against her lips, “hot and tight, you are going to scream your pleasure. Again and again.  I’m going to memorize every pant, moan, and sigh I wring from your lips until I can bring you to the brink with a single touch… or keep you straddling it for hours and hours,” the hand at her back pulled her tight against his hips. “You’ll be too sore to walk, too hoarse to talk… and you will love it.  You will love me.” Hot breath flowed over her aching lips.

A whimper escaped Kaoru’s throat. She saw Kenshin’s eyes smile right before he allowed his mouth to finally touch hers, thrusting his tongue between her lips and plundering her mouth.  Her head spun from his words and her body _ached_ for his touch, throbbing in time to the hard strokes of his tongue.  The feel of magic still buzzed and tingled just beneath the surface of her skin, straddling the border between pleasure and pain where it all merged into sensation, adding another dimension to his kiss.

Freeing his hand from her robe, he slid his fingers beneath her waistband at her back and slid them towards her stomach.  A soft _rip_ sounded as Kaoru grabbed Kenshin’s shirt too fiercely and something tore.  The buttons on his shirt dug into her stomach, but she didn’t care. 

His lips left hers again to shower her face with kisses.  Moist lips jumped to her collarbone and his teeth nipped against her skin.  She gasped at the sting and tugged his shirt again, ripping it more. 

Interspersed between scattered kisses, he began whispering endearments and promises.  Too caught up in the sensations, Kaoru couldn’t understand more than one in three.  When she heard the word “crowd,” however, she forced herself to listen more closely.  Interspersed with his worshipful and lustful comments were promises to present her to the entire city, to throw her lavish parties and parades, and to mark her in a way that would show the entire world who she belonged to.  “Crowds will come to marvel at your power and beauty,” he murmured, “hordes of servants will cater to your every whim.”

Kaoru felt like a bucket of ice water had been splashed in her face and the ice shards had sliced away her feelings of euphoria and bliss. “No,” she refused hoarsely.  

Kenshin didn’t seem to hear her. His fingers unbuttoned her jeans, his lips kissed along her jaw, and Kaoru felt herself sliding back into that warm pool of lust and longing.

But then she thought of his words on surrounding her with crowds and hordes, of presenting her to the entire city. She thought about how she’d never even met him before tonight.  Panic lent her strength. “No!” she pushed with both her body and mind, and a flare of power from their clasped hands blew him back across the room.

Snarling, Kenshin bounded up into a crouch.  Violence pulsed like a heartbeat in his glowing eyes as gold flickered with scarlet. “Why do you deny me?” he roared. The building shook. While she’d been distracted by his kisses, the full moon had risen outside and now flooded the apartment with silvery light.

“Because I’m scared, dammit!” Kaoru yelled back.  She hated being scared, she hated being trapped, and she hated to swear!  _Look at what this man has reduced me to_ , she thought with anger and frustration.

Turning away from her in the moonlit room, Kenshin swore and punched a hole in Megumi’s pristine eggshell white wallpaper.  As if it really had been as fragile as eggshell, large cracks from the crater raced across the wall in all directions and broken pieces fell off onto the carpet below.  Removing his hand, he shook pale paint chips and plaster from his tanned forearm and fingers.

Kaoru tried to muster up some anger over the destruction of Megumi’s apartment, but the waves of apprehension and fear were stronger.  Why did she trust to Kenshin’s promise to protect her? What made her think he was mild-mannered at heart and wouldn’t just as easily break her neck with a flick of his fingers?

_Not tame! Remember the mountain lion? They aren’t called predators for no good reason._

“Lord Battousai.  Ke- Kenshin,” she stuttered out, “please calm down.”

Leaning forward, Kenshin closed his eyes and placed his forehead and clenched fists against the ruined wall. For almost a minute he stood there in tense silence, a shadowy figure the moonlight seemed to avoid, as if it too feared disturbing him and reawakening his wrath. 

Kaoru wrapped her robe and arms around herself and shivered.  She was so confused.  Part of her wanted to sprint to the door and flee while she had the chance, but another, softer part wanted to step forward and place her hand soothingly on his tense shoulder.  Wood creaked softly under her feet when she shifted her weight, indecisive.

Finally Kenshin spoke, shattering the silence.  “That I am dangerous, I do not deny.  Being with me will change your life,” he turned away from the wall and faced her, allowing the moonlight access to his form.  The spill of light from the window cast half his face in silver and the other half in shadow, like a metallic domino mask in some dark masquerade.  “It does not necessarily follow that it must be a bad change. I want to protect you, be your companion, borrow your strength to heal my city, and bring you joy.  Some of those wants are selfish, but not all.  You stand to gain as well.” 

Reaching forward, he grabbed her hand insistently and gazed into her eyes. “I am not inflexible. Is that what you fear?” The flashes of red in his expression had sunk back beneath the surface, leaving only bronze and copper triangles twirling through the field of gold.  This close she could see obscure shapes undulating through the whites of his eyes.

His gaze demanded truth, but how to explain? “No, not exactly,” she temporized.  “I don’t object to healing the city with this power you say I have, though I hope you realize I don’t know how to use it,” she warned.

Kenshin took another step forward, casting his entire face into shadow.  Yet somehow, that made her next words easier to say. “Nor do I object to you, though my mind protests that we’ve just met.” She paused to wet her suddenly dry lips.  “It is the future that I fear.  You have this perfect idea of what I will do, how I will be.  But I’m not perfect, Kenshin.  And while I recognize you, and find that you do seem to fit into the puzzle pieces of my being quite seamlessly, I don’t completely know you. Nor do you completely know me.”

Kenshin moved as if to voice a protest, but Kaoru spoke over whatever he might have said.  “There are nuances here that the magic can’t completely convey.  Problems that we can’t overcome,” _problems you’d scorn me for_. “I’m a private person.  I don’t like or want the city knowing my intimate concerns.  You are the city’s intimate concern.”

“Koi,” Kenshin began to argue, but Kaoru cut him off again.  If she must be slippery as a fish, eluding his grasp and swimming away from his words, than so be it.

“My Lord Battousai,” she said formally, stepping back and slipping free her hand.  She couldn’t see his face, but the very air tightened with his frown. “Please.  We should clean up Megumi’s apartment before she comes back.”

After a moment of charged silence he responded, “Very well.”  His voice was surprisingly even.  “But there are shards of glass all over the floor.  Let me take care of it. You should sit.”  It was a simple enough request to obey compared to his previous demands.  Besides, Kaoru had taken her shoes off when she had entered the apartment. Kenshin, who had pushed his way in uninvited past Megumi, still wore his. 

Thinking that he had given up on his other demands very gracefully, Kaoru felt a pang of sad regret.  Recognizing it for what it was, she mentally smashed it down into a bit of goop and locked it in a steel enforced box deep within her mind.  _This was what I wanted, wasn’t it?_ Shaking such thoughts out of her head, she met his eyes.

“The broom and dustpan are in the kitchen behind the door, I think,” Kaoru offered.  Not wanting to cut up her feet, she moved carefully to the center of the room and sank down to sit on a cushioned footrest positioned in front of Megumi’s cream-colored leather recliner.  “I’m not sure where the new light bulbs are, though.”

For some reason, Kenshin seemed to be pacing around the living room instead of going to look for the necessary equipment.  At random places he would stop and touch the wall or floor with his fingertips. Unable to just sit quietly, Kaoru brought her hair over her shoulder and began combing her fingers through it.

“Ah,” Kenshin let out a sigh of satisfaction.  Then he slapped the wall he stood next to. In the silence the sound reverberated throughout the apartment.  Out of nowhere a tornado exploded into existence.  Over the roar of the wind he shouted something that boomed and echoed.  The tornado disappeared.  In its place remained large holes in the floor and ceiling of Megumi’s apartment.

“Oh, that went well,” Kaoru commented sarcastically.  “What’s wrong with just using a broom?  Why must men always insist on taking shortcuts-?”

Before she could continue her criticism, a beam of leaf green light connected the two holes.  More bars of light appeared between the tornado holes and the spots Kenshin had touched on the walls.  They formed a leaf green geodesic dome.  The light touched Kaoru and made her think of spring, when baby shoots unfurled into flowers and leaves.  Sunlight perfumed the air.  Each second that passed increased the intensity of the light until Kaoru had to squint and cover her eyes.  She heard the rustle of leaves moved by wind and then the light of spring disappeared.

Opening her eyes, she saw the pristine walls of Megumi’s apartment restored.  Light bulbs glowed cheerily from their sockets and even the hazelnut chocolate splatters on the white carpet that Kaoru had noticed while crawling around looking for the sash to her robe had disappeared. 

Wide eyed, she inhaled the lingering scent of sunlight and noticed an extra door had appeared in the apartment.  Looking through the open doorway, she guessed it to be an extra guest bedroom.  Kaoru somehow knew that the building had magically adjusted itself to meet its’ tenant’s needs.  Since Megumi had a guest, she needed an extra bedroom.

Unable to keep from smiling in delight, Kaoru turned to Kenshin.  “That,” he said arrogantly, “is what is wrong with just using a broom.  This is the way the buildings are supposed to be like when they are awake.  Over the years too many have fallen asleep. With your help,” he smiled into her eyes, “we’ll wake them all back up.”

“Huh,” Kaoru replied intelligently.  She had definitely been underestimating the appeal of magic all these years. _Could magic be used to cook, too?_

In the now well-lit room, Kaoru noticed that the hem of Kenshin’s white shirt was untucked and ripped, with the bottom two buttons popped off. _Two guesses whose fault that was, and the tornado doesn’t count_ , she thought in embarrassment.  Her combing fingers got caught in a snarl in her hair and she used that as an excuse to take her eyes off of his torn clothing.  Extracting her fingers, she started picking the knot apart.

“Kaoru,” Kenshin asked, “Where is your brush?”

“It _was_ in the right pocket of my suitcase before _someone_ made my suitcase disappear. Why?” Kaoru replied in a calm tone that tried and failed to be snide as she looked up from her tangled black hair.  Just like before, the magic’s sunlight scent made negative feelings hard to maintain.

Crouching on his heels, Kenshin was rifling through the contents of her suitcase. It sat on the floor of the living room right where she had left it earlier that day.  “I could very happily hit you,” Kaoru scowled.  Her lips, however, refused to stay down and quickly drifted up into an almost smile.

“How long is this stupid magic going to keep me cheerful?” Kaoru asked in a calm bordering on merry tone of voice, “because it’s really pissing me off.” 

Kenshin laughed from deep in his throat.  Every time he had laughed tonight, Kaoru had gotten the sense that his laughter was almost a surprise to him, as if he wasn’t used to being amused or was too used to being sad.  It made her want to provoke his laughter more often. If she could just figure out how to get him to laugh intentionally, especially without embarrassing herself in the process, it would be perfect.

“Koi, you are delightful,” he complimented as he stood up with her brush in hand and moved behind her to sit on the cream-colored leather recliner.  She twisted to follow his movements.  He was up to something.

The devastating combination of the cream leather framing Kenshin’s red hair, tan skin, and golden eyes made Kaoru’s heart catch in her chest.  His almost delicate features were saved from femininity only by his strong lips and determined chin.  Either way, he was the most dangerously attractive man she had ever seen.

“Turn around,” Kenshin ordered. 

“Why,” she asked suspiciously.

“You already know that I do bite, so what else is there to fear?” he asked.  Kaoru wasn’t sure if he was serious or not. 

Chewing on her lip, she tilted her head and studied his expression.  Before she could do more than bite down once, he reached out and inserted his finger between her teeth.  “No biting, remember?” he chided gently. It took considerable self-control to keep from either biting his finger off or licking it invitingly.

Before she could decide one way or the other, he placed a hand on her shoulder and turned her so that she was once again facing forward.  Then he scooted the footrest she sat on backwards until it was between his knees.  Her traitorous body tried to sprawl back against his warm skin, but she resisted, sitting tensely upright.  His fingers reached over her shoulders and gathered her hair behind her back. 

A pause, and then he took a handful of her hair in one hand and started brushing it.  The bristles scraped down her back pleasantly.  Despite her best efforts, she felt herself relaxing against his warm legs. 

Slowly and methodically the brush moved through her hair, followed by his fingers smoothing through the strands.  When it reached her scalp he paused for countless moments, giving her a soothing head massage.  Then the scrape of the brush and fingers resumed.  Her head nodded forward blissfully.  She was a puddle of slumberous delight. 

Each cycle of the brush from top to bottom caught slightly at the collar of her robe.  She only noticed it distantly because the interruption of the stroke had stopped.  Warm hands had slipped her robe off her shoulders to puddle at her waist and wrists.  The change began to rouse her from her complaisance.  But then the brushing started again. 

All too easily, the gentle scratching of the brush combined with the caress of his calloused fingers down the bare skin of her back to calm her mind.  Eyes half-lidded, Kaoru couldn’t even find the energy to hum contentedly.  She was that relaxed. 

Now the combing strokes began catching slightly between her shoulder blades. Thoughts moving like cold molasses, Kaoru slowly identified the cause… _bra_.  Question answered, she allowed her mind to sink again beneath the soothing waves of relaxation. The pleasure giving fingers traced up and down her back, then along her bra strap.  Nimble fingers released the catch, slipping it down her arms to join the robe.  Somnolent, she didn’t think to protest as long as the combing continued.  It did.  Time ceased to have meaning, and her eyes slipped close.

“Kaoru,” a masculine voice echoed in the corridor to her dreams.  “Koi?”

“Hmm?” she roused herself enough to answer; opening her eyes was out of the question.

“Do you know me?”

“Mm… hmm,” she answered affirmatively.  Forming actual words was too much effort.

“I need you to say my name, koi,” the voice demanded gently.

Eyes still closed, she murmured, “Ken… shi….”

“Good enough,” the voice praised.  “Do you want me?”

Kaoru scrunched her brow and burrowed into the warm shape beneath her cheek. “Wanna sleep,” she grumbled.  She felt her pillow move as a warm sigh ruffled her bangs.

“Perhaps I should have tried something else, but you are so stubborn, my love,” the voice mused to itself.  Kaoru felt like she should have paid attention, but she was too tired to try and understand the words.  She’d worry about it tomorrow.

“Kaoru,” her pillow jiggled her slightly, “do you want Kenshin to stay with you?”

“Yes, stay,” she muttered.  _Why wouldn’t he let her sleep?_ Something outside of her suddenly felt happy.  It made her smile sleepily.

“Then take me, Kaoru.  Mark my flesh with your bond, koi, and make us one forever.”  Fingers grasped her chin and pried her mouth open.  Something warm, coppery, and piquant slid onto her tongue.  The man chanted something she couldn’t understand, and then she felt a window in her mind open.  Something streamed out, and then she felt something crawl inside and curl up on the windowsill of her soul. Her mouth opened wider in visceral response and drank deeper of the tangy fluid.  Feeling a happy purr coming from _inside_ , a purr that didn’t belong to her, she managed to pry her heavy eyelids open.

The first thing she saw was Kenshin’s face.  It blazed with emotion, a triumphant conflagration.  She was on the couch and reclining in his lap with her head resting in the crook of his arm.  Her lips were locked around his wrist, drinking what she now identified as blood.  Taking one, or two or three, final licks, she forced herself to release his wrist.  She should be disgusted.  Instead, she wanted to run her tongue along her teeth and lips to catch any stray drops.  This didn’t seem real. 

“Now for your mark,” Kenshin smiled possessively.  “I’ve been trying to figure out the best place.  I know you want this to be… private, and I think I’ve finally thought of the perfect spot for it.”

Kaoru’s mind was still groggy, but looking down, she rapidly started to wake up.  “Kenshi’, why ‘m I naked?” she asked with as much alarm as her foggy mind could muster.

“I had to consider my canvass,” he smirked.  “Besides, you aren’t completely naked, koi.  Once I saw your underwear, I couldn’t bear to part with them just yet.  Considering that delectable black bra, I never would have guessed you were wearing white cotton panties with goldfish on them.” Kaoru blushed and tried to struggle out of his arms, but he held her fast.  “No wonder your mind jumped to fish when I first called you _koi_.”

Keeping her effortlessly in place, he brought his bloody wrist to his mouth and licked it clean.  Then he smiled.  It wasn’t a comforting look.  It was hungry.

“Do you feel the unfinished magic between us?  Can you feel your soul begging mine to complete the bond?”

Opening her mouth, Kaoru tried to growl out an emphatic ‘no!’ Instead, the word, “Yes,” rasped out.  _Traitor_ , her almost alert mind whimpered.  Despite its feeble protests, it knew a sinking ship when it saw one. 

While she’d been arguing with herself, Kenshin had laid her down on the couch and kneeled down between her legs.  Her breath caught in her throat as his hands rubbed up and down on the inside of her thighs. “What are you doing?” Kaoru asked as she reared up on one elbow, the other covering her chest in a pitiful attempt at modesty. 

“Marking you somewhere _private_ , just like you asked,” he answered throatily with his yellow, mountain lion eyes.  At that moment, the panicky part of Kaoru wanted to jump up and run out of the apartment screaming, even if she was only wearing her goldfish panties.  But she couldn’t.  Maybe he’d hypnotized her, maybe her body had decided that the battle was already lost, or maybe the secret part of her that wanted this had actually won. 

Whatever it was, it kept her from protesting as his mouth moved lower and lower in the air.  The entire time his yellow eyes stayed locked on hers.  He only broke the gaze when his lips kissed down onto her left knee.  Slowly his mouth and tongue traveled up her thigh, circling closer and closer to her center without ever touching. 

Kaoru panted and dug her fingers into the cushions of the couch.  The hands at her knees pressed her legs open wider and she felt more than heard his lips chant something against the skin of her inner thigh.  She tensed and only had a scant moment to wonder before he struck. 

Sharp teeth bit down on her femoral artery in the junction where hip met thigh.  Pain flooded her body as she reared up with an angry gasp.  Then his lips and tongue started working the bleeding wound.  Instead of aggravating the agony, it soothed and transmuted the pain to pleasure. 

Heat built and she tasted flames on the back of her tongue. The window in her mind became a clear glass corridor connecting their magic and souls.  Heat built upon heat, pleasure upon pleasure, until the feeling became overwhelming, like the sensation of sucking on a copper coin, and she had to do _something_ before she went mad.  Muscles clenched, her back arched, and everything exploded out in ripples of light. 

When she could breathe again, she opened her eyes and looked down.  Kenshin was sprawled over her legs with his cheek resting on her thigh.  He looked sated and content, like a cat that had fallen into a bucket of cream sprinkled with catnip.

“And just think, that was only the marking,” he drawled.  “Just wait until we actually have sex.” He rolled his head and kissed her thigh lightly.  “Do you think we’ll survive?”

As Kaoru tried to think of an appropriate reply, she started to feel light-headed.  “I think I’m going to pass out,” she informed him thickly.  Then she did.

When she opened her eyes again, it was to a room brilliant with morning sunlight. Gauzy white curtains swayed in a gentle breeze. On a chair across from her bed were her folded jeans from the night before and an unfamiliar shirt that looked like it belonged to a man. 

Rubbing her eyes, she sat up.  An unfamiliar ache made itself known between her legs.  _We didn’t have sex last night, did we? I never agreed to that!  How can I not remember having sex!?_ Kaoru thought in panic.  Throwing off the sheet, she looked down anxiously.  The goldfish on her panties grinned back cheerfully. 

The ache came from the spot where her hip met her thigh, the place where Kenshin had marked her.  In the light of morning it looked more like an intricate tattoo than a bite mark.  It also looked almost healed.  Unsure how she felt about his mark or the fact that he had tricked her into marking him first, Kaoru decided to get dressed and think about it later.

Sliding out of bed, she put on her old jeans, her black, jasmine embroidered bra, and a white dress shirt that she assumed to be Kenshin’s _.  If the man can find my brush in my luggage, why couldn’t he find clean clothes too,_ she rolled her eyes. 

In the pocket of her jeans she felt something crinkling.  Putting her hand in her pocket, she fingered the envelope Megumi had given her when she’d first come to the city.  What had Megumi said?  _Use only if in extreme danger and you have no other way to escape._   Why Megumi would think it was something Kaoru would actually need was beyond her.  It was some sort of magic that would whisk her away, that was all Kaoru could understand of it.  Kenshin could probably explain it better. 

Searching under the chair, Kaoru managed to find her socks and shoes.  _I guess he’s not completely hopeless._   Beneath all of her clothing she’d also found a small wooden box.  She wanted to be fully dressed before she opened it.  On top of the small box was an envelope made of hand-pressed paper.  Her name was written on it in beautiful penmanship.  Unable to find her comb to straighten her hair, _perhaps a privilege Kenshin is reserving for himself_ , she thought with mixed emotions, Kaoru picked up the envelope and broke the seal. 

Inside was a heavy piece of paper containing only one sentence in a bold and slanting script, ‘ ** _So you don’t forget.’_**   Smiling quizzically, she picked up the wooden box and lifted the lid.  Inside on a blue satin pillow rested a golden pendant.  It was in the shape of a leaping fish – a koi.  Kaoru laughed.  Extracting the simple but elegant chain from the box, she fastened it around her neck.

Deciding that breakfast was now in order, she moved toward the door.  When she’d opened it only a crack, however, she heard voices talking.  Quickly freezing in place, Kaoru decided to eavesdrop.

“Still,” a female voice said, “I’d have loved to see Shinomori actually turn white.”

“But Omasu,” the other voice protested, “that would have meant actually seeing Lord Battousai in a rage!  I, for one, never want to experience that first hand.”

“Isn’t that the truth,” Omasu replied fervently.  “I guess we’re lucky Shinomori didn’t send us to inform Lord Battousai about the missing girl and the break in.   It’s sort of creepy how he can just sense changes in the estate and city sometimes, even if he’s miles and miles away.  Do you ever wonder what else he can sense that we don’t know about?”

“When it comes to our Lord, some things we’re better off not knowing.  All I need to know is that he found our city’s salvation with it.  I heard he just stood up in the middle of someone’s talk and stormed out of that conference, willing to brave anything for love.  Can’t you just picture it?”  Both women sighed wistfully.

“Hey Okon, do you know what having a new lady means?”

Okon laughed delightedly. “Parties!  People are going to come from miles around just to meet her.  There will have to be a huge wedding with the entire city in attendance and then a big celebration.  Nothing less for the Lord Battousai.”

“What a crush that’ll be,” Omasu sighed rapturously.

“And that lucky girl will have to be the center of the founders’ day parade, with thousands of people taking her picture and trying to get her autograph. I bet she’s so glamorous!”

“Oh I’m so jealous.  Do you think she’s awake yet?”

Closing the door soundlessly and turning the lock, Kaoru felt her pulse fluttering in her throat like a trapped bird.  _Be at the center of a parade with thousands of people? She’d be killed!  It’d be a crush all right. A crush because she’d be crushed to death by all of those people!_ She had to get away, had to escape.  She couldn’t do this, couldn’t be Kenshin’s Lady, no matter how wonderful he was. Hyperventilating, Kaoru saw black spots start to swim before her eyes.  Collapsing into a chair, she put her head between her knees until her breathing slowed down. 

As soon as her vision cleared, she jumped up and looked out the window. It was too high up to jump out without breaking her legs.  Gaze darting around nervously, she decided to try using magic on the house.  After all, it had worked last time, _right?_  

Putting her hand on the wall, Kaoru pushed with those muscles in her mind she’d only discovered yesterday and said, “I need to get outside without anyone knowing.” 

Grasping the doorknob that appeared magically below her hand, she descended the staircase behind it.  Jogging down several dark tunnels to the chant of ‘ _crowd of thousands, what a crush_ ,’ echoing in her head, she finally opened the door that led outside.  Stepping through, she found herself standing in the driveway.  As soon as her hand left the wood of the door, it faded back into the wall.  No sign of her passage remained.

Fishing around in her pocket, Kaoru pulled out the crumpled envelope from Megumi.  Despite her panicky need to escape, she couldn’t help rolling her eyes again at the threat inked below the seal:

**_‘This is expensive magic, so only open and use if in imminent danger and you are_ absolutely sure _I cannot be reached.  If you can get a hold of me, but use this emergency escape anyway, I will not be pleased! I will make good on the threat to tattoo lascivious come-ons on your bicep, such as: ‘I love popsicles, bananas, and bad men who bite.’  But if you need help, break the seal and read the name inside._**

**_Love, Megumi.’_ **

Breaking the seal, Kaoru quietly read the words on the card out loud, “Take me to Sagara Sanosuke.” A warm mist poured from the card and engulfed her body.  She felt herself becoming fog.

_Poor Mr. Shinomori.  I hope Kenshin doesn’t give him too much trouble over my second escape,_ she thought distantly as she streamed away into the city.

Chills rippled through her mind as the traveling fog condensed back into her body, minus one shoe.  Blowing her bangs out of her face, Kaoru prepared to explain to Megumi’s Sano just who she was and why she was here. As soon as she figured out where here was.  At the moment she was facing a small window set in a wall that looked freshly painted olive green.  It matched well with the cherry wood table next to the window. 

Turning about, she felt her jaw drop.  The green did not match the ratty orange sofa in the center of the room.  At all.  However, the paint did look identical to the olive green sheet wrapped around Megumi’s torso, the only thing Kaoru’s best friend seemed to be wearing. It also perfectly complimented the mauve color of several impressive hickies adorning Megumi’s pale neck. From what Kaoru could see of the man standing behind the couch, and as he didn’t seem to be wearing anything but a fuzzy orange pillow from the couch she could see quite a lot, she assumed he was Sanosuke. 

_He really does have rooster hair._   Despite the gravity of the situation, she felt her lips twitching in amusement.  That ratty orange pillow really was the ugliest thing she had ever seen. Her eyes kept wanting to stray south.  Because of the pillow, of course, and not any other possible reason.

Turning to look at Megumi as a slightly safer sight, Kaoru had to bite her lip at Megumi’s mussed hair and general state of dishabille. Megumi’s surprised face was fluctuating between concern and mortification. It made Kaoru wish wistfully for a camera. 

“Hi, and ah… help?” Kaoru said.

At her words, Megumi’s gaze sharpened.  “Sano, get dressed,” she barked without looking away from Kaoru. 

“Nice ta meet ya’, Jou-chan. Sagara Sanosuke at yer service,” Sano drawled, though a faint tint of red on his cheekbones belied his apparent ease.  “The fox told me she bought ya’ a translocation spell jus’ in case you got in trouble.  Whatever the problem is, me and the wife’ll fix it.”

“Sano,” said Megumi in an angry and exasperated tone of voice, “if you are still standing there naked in front of my best friend wearing only a pillow, I. Will. Not. Be. Happy.  Understand?”  
            A mischievous smirk appeared on Sano’s face.  “Aw, come on now, fox. There’s more than enough of me to go around.  Besides, weren’t you just saying how you wanted to put me through my paces?”  Megumi twirled around with her mouth open in outrage, but before she could start her tirade Sano leapt backwards into the bedroom and slammed the door.

“Wife?” Kaoru asked in confusion. 

Megumi stiffened and slowly turned back around.  “I wasn’t quite sure how to tell you,” she explained apologetically.  “I still hadn’t decided if I was going to stay with the idiot or not.”

At a loss, and not a little hurt, Kaoru asked, “How long?”

Crossing her arms over her sheet-clad chest, Megumi replied, “Three weeks.”

“Three weeks?!” Kaoru yelled angrily.  Thinking back, she tried to remember what Megumi had told her about that weekend.  “Wait… was that the weekend you got drunk and claimed you couldn’t remember anything the next morning?”

“Yes,” Megumi sighed. “Except I wasn’t quite drunk enough to forget _marrying_ Sano, I was just drunk enough to forget why in heavens name I accepted his proposal. If I couldn’t explain it to myself, how was I to explain it to you?”  Her voice turned slightly pleading.  “Sano and I talked it over some last night, and I swear I was going to tell you the next time I saw you.” 

Kaoru could never resist Megumi’s look of vulnerable pleading. It happened so rarely.  Chewing on her lip, Kaoru decided to forgive her best friend.  Besides which, teasing Megumi was always more fun than being mad at Megumi.

Looking again at the evidence of what Megumi had been doing the night before, Kaoru had to struggled to keep her face straight as she asked, “Well, I guess you found a use for the ‘useless rooster-head’ after all, hmm? I guess he likes playing doctor too.”  Megumi started sputtering.  “I’m sure he loved tutoring you on your anatomy homework.  And did he kiss your boo-boos better?” A snort escaped Kaoru, despite her best efforts. 

Megumi straightened and tossed her hair back.  “Did Lord Battousai kiss yours?”

A rush of heat flooded Kaoru’s body as a sudden sensory memory assaulted her of Kenshin kissing up her thigh and laving his mark soothingly with his tongue.  “That was a low blow,” Kaoru gasped out.

Sano rushed out of the bedroom in a pair of worn denims, top button still undone, and a ripped up t-shirt mere seconds later.  “So what happened, Jou-chan?  He didn’t hurt you did he?” Knuckles cracked as Sano clenched his fists threateningly.

“No no, Kenshin would never hurt me,” Kaoru was quick to reassure. 

‘ _Kenshin_?’ mouthed Megumi with an arched eyebrow. 

“You see, it’s just that-” before Kaoru could finish her sentence, she was interrupted by a loud snap.  Then the new coat of paint on the wall suddenly became riddled with a spider’s web of cracks.  The crackling was soon followed by a growling rumble as the entire building began to shake.

“Earthquake!” yelled Sano as he vaulted the couch and forced Megumi under the protection of his broad chest in the kitchen doorway.  Kaoru, on the other side of the room, fell back against the wall and curled her arms around her head. Silently she prayed that the window would remain intact. Despite the ominous creaking of the light fixture over their heads, nothing broke or fell. 

Under the rumbling noise Kaoru felt like she could almost hear a voice.  Focusing on that feeling, she barely noticed when the tremors started to slow.  The words were indistinguishable at first.  Slowly they resolved into the repetition of a word, one the last twelve hours had made her intimately familiar with.

Suddenly, she felt warm and moist phantom breaths puffing against the skin below her left ear. Looking back, she shakily confirmed that no one was there. Just the olive green wall. Yet she could feel it, could feel _him_ standing behind her in Sano’s apartment. 

“Koi,” a ghostly voice commanded, caressed, growled in her ear. “Koi!” it shouted. Then the building became still.

Dust, sparkling like glitter in the sunlight, sifted through the air in the now silent room. Bringing trembling fingers to the pendant around her neck, Kaoru touched warm gold and remembered the other meanings of _koi_ besides carp and love.  Koi was also a command _to_ _come_.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Indygodusk’s real dream (So don’t expect coherency) – I was at a friend’s house visiting and had gotten spotted and claimed by some lord. She was sneaky and used an obscure law to get me out of it. We hoped I was safe, but then at her house we heard a knock on the door. I was only in pants, bra, and a bathrobe that was slick so the ties wouldn’t stay knotted. Answer door to servant, who push his way in very politely. He’s very attractive. Deliver letter. We read and it about claiming me and looking forward to our sexual interlude. Something about having me on a couch with his tongue (censored) as a promise. We freak out. Then friend gets legalese idea and says something to the effect that I already belong to her and fulfill that function, so I can’t be claimed by another. Then she grabs me by my bathrobe and kisses me hard. I’m shocked. Ties come loose again and fall off. She releases me and marches over to the servant. Tells him to come and that they are going to go argue about it… or was it she was going to sleep with the lord in my place? Anyway, she storms out with the servant on her heels and I hear the lock click. I’m frozen in place still. The servant walks back into the room. He doesn’t look subservient anymore. He looks dangerous. I have epiphany that he’s not a servant, he is the master. I stumble back, close my robe, and wrap arms around myself. He is very calm, walks unhurriedly around the apartment, checking it out. I realize/he lets me know that it is inevitable and will happen. I go splash my face with cold water to brace me/wake me up out of my shock. Water makes the hair at my temples curl into ringlets as it dries. He asks me to come and sit by him on the couch. I’m nervous and finger combing my hair. He relaxed and reading legal document that my friend was drawing up to save me. He compliments it. Asks me to grab my brush, and when I do I pulls me down to the couch and starts brushing my hair. I try to stay tense, but it relaxes me, starts putting me to sleep. He slides my robe off my shoulders unresistingly. As he combs the bristles keep getting caught on my bra strap, so he unsnaps it and I, somnolent, don’t even think to protest.
> 
> Then I woke up. 
> 
> 0.0
> 
> Did anyone catch the way I started each chapter with one of the four elements? Prolly not, sigh. Is the time jumping too confusing, or do you like it? Does it add tension to the chapter or just annoyance? Oh, and I thought of the femoral artery mark before reading The End of Days, so it wasn’t a copy! Also, Kenshin is NOT a vampire. It is just that blood equates to power. I think for my next story I need to experiment with another narration style. Everything I’ve done up to date has been third person limited POV. But change is difficult! I also backslid in this chapter into my former bad obsessive slow writing/editing habits that this story is an attempt to break myself of. Woe! I got a haircut this week which I’m still coming to terms with. My waist-length hair is now only to my shoulder blades and full of layers. So short! For me at least. But I now have, according to a friend, style and movement. I think I like it.


	5. The Versatility of Chocolate

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Dictionary:  
> Koi – Depending on the kanji used it has different meanings. In this chapter it means carp – a fish found in ornamental ponds. It also means love, tender passion; the command form of the verb kuru – to come; (and a bunch of other things that aren’t used here… yet.)  
> Jou-chan – Sano’s nickname for Kaoru

Spirit was something that Kaoru had always prided herself on. Yet at that moment, she felt as weak and pale as winter grass. What scared her most was the thought that if Kenshin really had been standing behind her, his chest pressed intimately against her back, lips hovering near the nape of her neck, she might succumb. She might come with him, come to him and let herself be molded into what he wanted her to be.

_But he isn’t here_. _You’re strong, Kaoru. You can do this_. Forcing her breathing to slow and steady, Kaoru assured her wavering heart that distance and time would be enough to break his hold on her emotions. _It would have to be._

“Is everyone alright?” Sano asked, breaking into her thoughts.

Kaoru pushed herself to her feet. “I’m fine.” Wafting a hand in front of her face to try and brush away the particle filled air, she sneezed. “Megumi? You okay?”

“No injuries from the earthquake,” she answered, “though I’ll probably end up with some bruises from the rough handling.” Thumping Sano on the arm, she scolded, “You didn’t have to tackle me.”

“Better safe than sorry,” he replied unrepentantly, smirking. Then he threw an arm over Megumi’s bare shoulders, right after darting a glance at Kaoru, and said, “Besides, now we’ll have a matching set.”

_Why would he have bruis- oh, right._ Kaoru blushed. _I did not need that mental picture!_

“I don’t remember any earthquake warnings recently,” Megumi calmly mused as she retracted her elbow and stepped away from her husband’s gasping body. _Poor Sano,_ _that elbow must have hurt._ _Being a doctor really gives her an unfair advantage in knowing where to hit to cause the most pain with the least amount of effort._ “Let’s turn on the radio and see how bad it was. I hope no one got hurt too badly.”

As Megumi walked by Kaoru, the doctor paused to squeeze Kaoru’s shoulder sympathetically. “After that, my friend, you can tell us why you’re only wearing one shoe and what happened last night.” The sheet wrapped around Megumi’s body fluttered elegantly as she moved away. It made Kaoru think of an expensive designer gown being paraded on a catwalk. Only Megumi could make cheap sheets look chic.

With a flick of her manicured fingers, Megumi adjusted the dial through crackling static and crooning boy bands until she found talk radio. As the announcer finished up a story on stray dogs and the pigeons who loved them, Sano came out from the kitchen with glasses of iced tea. After passing them out, he plopped down onto the ugly orange couch next to his wife. _I still can’t believe she got married and didn’t tell me!_

Beads of water condensed on the outside of each frosted glass. Kaoru took a large gulp and promptly began coughing. The icy chill made her throat spasm. Sipping more carefully the second time, she savored the tart raspberry flavor, washing the taste of fear and disappointment from her tongue. Kaoru rubbed the chilly glass against the side of her face to cool her flushed cheeks. Taking another sip, she crossed her arms and allowed the half empty cup to dangle from her fingertips.

Letting out a low sigh, she leaned back against the olive green wall. It felt sturdy against her shoulder blades and Kaoru slowly allowed herself to relax. A symphonic burst of sound suddenly blasted out of the radio, followed by the news they’d been waiting for. “We interrupt your current program for a breaking news story. Approximately five minutes ago, an earthquake hit the southern section of the city. Dust from broken masonry and steam from ruptured water pipes can be seen filling the sky from almost a mile away.”

Kaoru jumped away from the wall with a squeak. An inquisitive look from Megumi silently asked why she was acting so twitchy. Their eyes met and the moment stretched out like salt water taffy. Just as Kaoru opened her mouth to break the silence, another symphonic burst of music blasted out of the radio. Plastering a reassuring smile on her face, Kaoru looked back to the radio. Yet a few seconds later her teeth were worrying her bottom lip anxiously. Kaoru reassured herself that nothing would be gained by telling Megumi right away what had just happened. After all, they needed to hear more about the earthquake and, more importantly, Megumi didn’t have magic. _Let’s not bother her prematurely._ Putting her glass down on a nearby table, Kaoru shot a suspicious glare at the olive green wall out of the corner of her eye.

Just a second ago, she had turned her head to look out the window. As soon as the bare skin along the edge of her ear had brushed against the wall, she had felt the solid wall instantly become the consistency of mud. An elbow and half her cheek had sucked past the paint and plaster before she’d realized what was going on and leaped away. For a split-second, Kaoru would have sworn that she felt the edge of a fingertip graze across her skin and catch on a lock of her hair.

Somehow, Kaoru’s newly awakened magical sense informed her that Kenshin didn’t know exactly where she was. Yet. But he was zeroing in fast and he was not happy. Every muscle in her body vibrated with the urge to flee.

However, if she wanted to succeed she needed a plan. And to make a good plan she needed more information. Sharply leashing her instincts, she moved a few steps farther away from the dangerous wall and stepped onto a shaggy brown rug. Kaoru hoped that the rug would protect her from a repeat incident. Sinking into the wooden floorboards below would give her all sorts of new phobias. _I already have my quota for the decade, thank you very much_. Forcing her breathing to remain even, Kaoru tried to concentrate on the radio.

Whatever fluke had allowed her to influence the walls back at Lord Battousai’s estate seemed to have passed. When Kaoru sent a tendril of that _other_ kind of thought at the building, she got the grudging impression that it felt surly and blamed her for its damaged condition. It wouldn’t actively tell the Master she was there, but if she got caught in a trap or needed an escape that wasn’t an already existing door or window, she was on her own.

Kaoru almost got the feeling that the building would enjoy a smug laugh at her expense. If buildings could laugh that is. Glaring at the floor not covered by furniture and rugs, Kaoru had to resist the urge to kick the wall or stomp on the floor. She knew that the only thing she’d probably accomplish would be sore toes and cautious looks from her companions, but it just might be worth it for the pure satisfaction.

Although her feet twitched, she forced her attention back to the radio. “No casualties or injuries have been reported yet, but- wait, can you repeat that? Thanks. Listeners, I’ve just been told that the event might not have been an earthquake after all. At least not one caused naturally. Eyewitness reports claim that the ground itself didn’t shake, only the buildings. I repeat, only the buildings were affected. Furthermore, the only buildings that experienced the so-called earthquake were those made with magic. The newer buildings in the southern section built with mundane materials had no tremors at all. You all know what this means.”

Confused, Kaoru looked to Sano and Megumi for elucidation. At the announcer’s words, Megumi covered her face with one hand and groaned tragically. A wide-eyed Sano met Kaoru’s gaze. “Wow, I’d never have expected it from a little thing like you.”

“What?” Kaoru replied, still confused, not to mention aggravated. “And I’m not little!”

Fortunately, the radio chose that moment to explain before her irritated confusion could turn to violence. “Yes folks, that’s right. Lord Battousai is Angry with a capital A. Last time we saw something like this was when the stadium was bombed. I remember how the city shook off and on for 24 hours until the culprits were captured. I don’t know if they ever did find all of the body parts, but good riddance to bad rubbish I say. Of course, if Bill wasn’t out sick today I know he’d be arguing with that statement. Feel free to call in and take up his torch.

I just got a note from the station manager. We still don’t know what could have set Lord Battousai off, but we’ll open the phones in a minute to see if anyone out there might have a clue. It has to be something terrible if He’s involved. Some people complain about the almost absolute power the Battousai dynasty wields here in the City, but I’ve always felt safe knowing they’re looking out for us. I know we’ll all rest easier as soon as the culprit gets caught and He can calm down. Whoever he’s hunting, I don’t envy them,” the news anchor chuckled and then opened the lines for callers.

Meeting Megumi’s troubled gaze, Kaoru just knew that her cheeks had paled to white. “Do you think I shouldn’t have run away?” Kaoru asked weakly. Megumi didn’t answer, but Kaoru wasn’t sure that she wanted one anyway. Her friend’s brown eyes softened and she sent Kaoru a small, sympathetic smile. It bolstered Kaoru’s flagging spirits. _Thank goodness for best friends._

“Do you think we should call in?” Sano asked, forcing the women to break eye contact. His voice boomed excitedly from where he was picking up the telephone. “I’ve always wanted to be on the radio.”

Kaoru may have just met Sano a few minutes ago, but that wouldn’t save him from her wrath. She lunged. Megumi ignored the sound of Kaoru tripping on the edge of the rug and merely crossed her arms, employing her own favorite weapon - her razor-sharp tongue. “I know you’re an idiot, but you can’t be _that_ stupid. Right?”

His index finger froze on the number pad as he slowly turned to look at his wife. “Er, yes?” Sano replied. With a sheepish grin he replaced the receiver and shrugged.

Meanwhile, Kaoru cowered on the ugly brown rug and sent death glares his way. When she’d tripped after jumping at Sano, she’d caught herself with one hand, a knee, and a foot on the bare floorboards. At the touch of bare skin, her body had started to sink down below the wood. Toppling backwards onto the rug on her butt and scooting frantically to the center had saved her body, but not her sock and remaining shoe.

Kaoru was not a happy camper. She wanted to bash Sano’s stupid grin into the telephone on the wall. She wanted to be wearing more on her feet than one sock on the left, barely hanging onto the heel, and some white lint on the bare toes of her right, and she really wanted to stop sinking through the freaking building!

Earlier on she’d been willing to be magnanimous about the loss of the first shoe. Those sneakers were due to be replaced anyway. But now Kenshin had gone too far. She loved those socks. Kaoru had spent hours embroidering a little sword on each ankle. Sure it was only two straight lines of stitches, but it had been hard. That right sock still had the blood stains to prove it! But now no one would ever know, and she would forget, because all she had left was one left sock with no blood stain that didn’t match any other sock anywhere in the world except the one that had disappeared underneath the floorboard. An angry growl ripped from Kaoru’s throat.

Kenshin was a dead man. She wouldn’t forgive this. Not even if he popped up out of the floor and nibbled on her toes beseechingly. He could even bring flowers and offer to massage every inch of her body with scented oils and she still wouldn’t forgive him.

Maybe if, and it would be a big maybe, he brought chocolate dipped fruit and a variety of really expensive cheeses and wore only a fringed silk loin cloth while he massaged her slowly with his long, talented fingers while sultry music played in the background. Maybe then… but no. Even that wouldn’t be enough. He’d have to do all of that AND make the building give back her sock. But the sock would have to be washed and pressed and both Kenshin and the building would have to apologize. Abjectly. Then, and only then, would she forgive him.

Looking up, Kaoru saw Megumi kneel down next to her on the rug and felt the doctor place a cool hand on her forehead. “Are you alright?” Megumi asked carefully.

Kaoru scowled. “The floor ate my sock. Of course I’m not alright!”

Megumi’s face morphed into an expression of artificial calm. In a professional tone of voice she soothed, “I’m sure the last few hours have been very difficult. Why don’t you come and lie down for a few minutes while I get dressed. Sano can get you some juice and cookies.”

Sano interrupted, “I’m not a waiter or a short order chef, you know.”

“Sano,” Megumi’s voice sounded soft and dangerous. “I can very easily become a widow. There are several young interns at the hospital more than willing to help me hide the body. Not to mention console me afterwards. Neither of us want that to happen, yes?” Kaoru could see the big man gulp and take a step backwards at her threatening words and tone. “Get. The. Juice,” she ordered.

“You can’t just threaten me every time you want something done,” Sano grumbled sotto voce. “I have ri-” seeing the glitter in Megumi’s hard brown eyes, he closed his mouth and slunk into the kitchen.

“And chocolate!” ordered Megumi after her cowed husband. Then Kaoru’s reprieve was over and Megumi turned her attention back to her patient. Her face and voice once again looked calm, as if she hadn’t just threatened to murder her husband. “I’m sure you’ll feel better after some rest and chocolate.” As Megumi spoke, she picked up Kaoru’s wrist and took her pulse. Then she lifted Kaoru’s eyelids to check for pupil dilation.

Despite the recent show of how scary Megumi really could be, Kaoru had reached her breaking point. Slapping the hands away, Kaoru protested, “Don’t patronize me! I’m not crazy and I’m not on drugs! Lord Battousai,” she spat out his name angrily, “is trying to use the magical buildings to trap me. Just because he has magic he thinks he can push me around. Well, I won’t take it, do you hear me!” By the end of her tirade, Kaoru was standing up and yelling at the ceiling.

Sending her a look that questioned her sanity, Sano mutely proffered a cup of orange juice and a plate of cookies. Kaoru resented that look… but the cookies _were_ chocolate chocolate chip. Stuffing a cookie into her mouth, she decided that he’d bought himself a few more minutes of life.

As for Megumi, her face did _not_ look pleased. No one yelled at the fashionable doctor with impunity, not even her best friend. Sheepishly Kaoru looked down at the greasy chocolate smears on her hand. “Sawy Megu’i.” Kaoru swallowed the last of the cookie and continued her apology. “I didn’t mean to yell at you. It’s just-” Pausing a moment to quickly lick the chocolate off her fingers, Kaoru knelt down. “Look, I’ll show you I’m not crazy. Whenever my skin touches the floor or walls, it tries to suck me in.” Taking a firm grip on the ratty brown rug with one hand, Kaoru placed two fingers of the other on the floorboard next to Megumi and gently pushed down.

Before Kaoru knew it, her arm had submerged all the way past her elbow. Instead of the thick muddy consistency she’d expected, her fingers had dropped through the floor as if it had become soup. Shrieking in surprise, Kaoru tried to pull her arm back, but before her forearm could completely clear the floor, steely fingers locked around her wrist and began to slowly drag her farther in.

“Sano!” Megumi called frantically. The doctor grabbed Kaoru’s arm and heaved back with all of her might. A fierce tug on Kaoru’s wrist from below the floor ripped Kaoru’s anchoring hand off the rug, along with a handful of brown string, and jammed Megumi’s fingers into the floor. Two red-painted nails snapped off with sharp cracks. Megumi swore. By this time the floor had almost completely consumed Kaoru’s entire arm.

“Lemme go, lemme go, lemme go,” Kaoru chanted semi-hysterically under her breath. The flesh of her arm underneath the floor felt cold and buzzed unpleasantly. She refused to contemplate what would happen if her head went completely under as well.

Then Sano joined the fray. Bracing his feet on either side of Kaoru’s shoulders, he gripped her under the armpits and heaved with a mighty roar. With Sano’s help, the tide finally began to turn. Slowly, inch by slurping inch, Kaoru’s arm reappeared. Yet the phantom fingers locked around her wrist kept her hand from completely clearing the floor. The calloused fingers, they had to be HIS fingers, refused to free her arm.

“Let Me GO!” Kaoru demanded fiercely. Plunging her free hand beneath the floor, she raked the imprisoning hand with her fingernails. His fingers flinched in surprise and loosened for a split second. That spasm allowed her wrist to escape so that only her palm and fingers remained submerged under the floor.

Too quickly his fingers retightened, but the flesh he now grasped still bore smears of greasy chocolate. His fingers slipped slightly. Kaoru prayed that it would be enough. Contorting her fingers she shouted, “Pull!” Sano grunted and Megumi turned red with effort. Finally, painfully, she wrenched out of his grasp.

Her sudden freedom overbalanced everyone. They fell to the floor with a loud _crash_. Laying half on the rug and half on Sano’s body, Kaoru cackled triumphantly. Her voice might have carried a slightly insane edge, but at that moment she didn’t really care. _I’m free!_

‘ **BOOMba-BAdabada**!’ thundered the walls and floor as the building again violently trembled. Strained planks snarled and groaned in shock until the shaking finally stopped. The earthquake shattered Kaoru’s momentary euphoria.

“Now would be a good time to run away,” issued Sano’s muffled voice from the bottom of their pile of bodies. “Preferably outside and away from all magical buildings that eat people.”

Kaoru carefully stood up and hopped over onto the couch. She wasn’t taking any more chances. The more space between her and the floor or walls, the better.

“Let me just get dressed while Sano grabs some emergency supplies and we’ll leave,” Megumi called over her shoulder as she rushed into the bedroom. Sano hurried into the kitchen, but paused in the doorway with a teasing grin. “No more cookies for you, Jou-chan. I feel like I’ve been flattened by a hippo!” The phonebook Kaoru sent hurtling at Sano clipped his shoulder as he ducked out of sight into the kitchen. Unfortunately, her aim was off. She’d been trying to hit him somewhere a few feet lower.

After his retreat, Kaoru found herself left alone in the living room. Alone was bad. Without something to distract her, Kaoru found her thoughts buzzing loudly around her head like angry wasps – dangerous, persistent, and impossible to ignore. Looking down at her hand, she saw a bruise forming around her wrist. She scowled. _If I wasn’t doing my best to get away from that jerk, I’d hunt him down and show him a thing or two._ Kaoru shook her fist at the wall, then dropped her hand and sighed. Deep down she knew with startling clarity that he hadn’t meant to hurt her. The bruising was unintentional.

Nevertheless, he was still in the wrong. _How dare he try to control me?_ That, more than the bruise itself, was what really made her mad, though he needed to pay for the bruise too just on principle. What she wouldn’t give for just five minutes alone with that jerk handcuffed to a chair at her mercy. She’d teach him a lesson he’d never forget. Yes, his offence definitely called for chains and a leather whip… _hmm leather_ …. Kaoru coughed, wiped her mouth, and dragged her thoughts away from any and all dark fantasies.

Desperately looking around for something to distract herself with, she noticed a few brown threads still dangling between the fingers of her other hand. They must have ripped out of the rug when she’d lost her grip. Meticulously cleaning off the threads, Kaoru froze when she realized that she had blood and skin beneath her fingernails. _So, I did hurt him._

Instead of feeling vindicated, she felt vaguely guilty and sick to her stomach. Looking away from her hand, she cleaned her fingers as best she could on the couch cushion. When she brought the hand up to eyelevel, the fingers looked clean. But she could still sense it. _How did things go so quickly from kissing to hurting each other?_

Closing her eyes, she clasped her koi pendant in the fingers of her injured hand. The ache in her wrist had dulled to a muted throb. _Oh, Kenshin._ As if thinking his name had turned a key, the buzzing around her head got louder. Something inside her head thrummed back. Suddenly, Kaoru knew that Kenshin didn’t know that he’d bruised her. And that he would forgive her, had already forgiven her for the injuries she’d inflicted.

What he wouldn’t and couldn’t forgive was that she had run away. While his dogged pursuit frightened, angered, and frustrated her, Kaoru didn’t know what else she could do. She only saw one option – keep running away.

An idea suddenly slithered into her mind full-formed. She was certain it would get Kenshin off her back. Coldly certain. However, there were some depths to which Kaoru would not stoop.

Rubbing her wounded wrist gently, Kaoru let out another sigh. Kenshin would be horrified to know that he had hurt her. With her new, intimate knowledge of Kenshin, the Lord Battousai, she knew he wasn’t the type of man who would hurt a woman. Not outside of war or battle at least, and definitely not a woman he considered under his protection. Both his honor and his personality would forbid it.

If she really wanted to devastate him, all Kaoru needed to do was show him her wrist, look into his eyes and quietly ask, “Who wouldn’t run away?” That would cut him more deeply than any physical knife or sword ever could. Then he would let her escape. She had no doubt that the question would torture his conscience. It would irrevocably break something inside of his heart. A _nd for that reason_ _he must_ never _know._

Since she didn’t expect to ever see him again, it was a moot point. But just in case, Kaoru made a mental note to find a good way to hide her bruises. That or come up with a really good excuse or distraction. She would not be responsible for damaging the psyche of that man, no matter how aggravating she found him.

Flopping onto her back, Kaoru opened her eyes and made a disgruntled face at the ceiling. Despite her best efforts, she’d started to care for Kenshin. Now she couldn’t stop, not even when his eyes became that distant and dangerous mountain lion yellow-gold. Not even when the jerk tried to suck her into a building. Underneath the anger and fear remained the caring.

Tracing the outline of the koi’s arcing back with a fingertip, Kaoru acknowledged to herself that somewhere in the last few hours she’d abandoned reason and unconsciously accepted the soul-bond he’d forced on her. She hated to admit it, and she’d NEVER tell him or even say it out loud, but there was very little she wouldn’t do to make that man happy. Unfortunately, one of those things was go back and pretend to be a vapid socialite, someone who thrived on parades and big parties. She wouldn’t, she _couldn’t,_ and so she would continue to flee.

A man like Kenshin was too wonderful not to find happiness eventually with someone else. He would be okay. Not questioning why that thought didn’t bring her any comfort, Kaoru released her necklace and sat up. Instead of just waiting passively, she decided to start rearranging furniture and rugs to make a safe path to the door.

Soon Megumi and Sano came out. Kaoru’s wait certainly hadn’t been idle. After she’d made herself a path, she’d gone through Megumi’s shoe collection and picked out something appropriate to her mood. The last embroidered sock had gone safely into her pocket.

On seeing the couple she cocked one hip and asked, “We ready to get this show on the road?” Sano gave a quizzical smile at her attitude. If he expected her to fall to pieces, he had another thing coming.

_Wearing Megumi’s scarlet leather sandals, how can I not feel sassy and confident?_ _Ah, the power of red leather. Nothing can stop me now!_ Kaoru grinned to herself. Megumi scowled down at Kaoru’s feet, but settled for a warning glare about returning them undamaged before opened the door. An eddy of dust from the hallway swirled into the room when she opened the door.

Looking down at the navy and beige hexagons tiling the hallway, Kaoru felt a crack form in her confidence. She’d counted on the hallway being carpeted, or at least full of rugs. But there were only bare tiles stretching in both directions. “Oh, great,” she frowned.

Sano, who up to that point had been both slightly charming and very infuriating, brushed past Kaoru’s frozen body. Crouching down, he presented her with his back. Kaoru hesitated. “C’mon Jou-chan, I don’t bite.” The smile he sent her over his shoulder was gentle, almost sweet. It didn’t match his words, but it did match the boyish twinkle she’d yet to see missing from his eyes.

“That’s not what Megumi tells me,” Kaoru replied dryly. He let out a deep chuckle. Patting his firm shoulder, Kaoru declined. “Thanks for the offer of a ride, but I can do it myself. I’ll just, um, somehow, er….” Tilting her head back and forth as she examined the hallway, Kaoru drew a blank. She really had no idea how she would do this.

A split second before she capitulated, Sano decided for her. Quickly grabbing her behind the knees, he surged to his feet and forced her falling body onto his back. Kaoru shrieked in surprise and pulled his hair angrily. “Knock it off, girly, or else get dropped,” he yelped.

“I didn’t want to be picked up in the first place!” Kaoru yelled into his ear as he strode off down the hallway. The scarlet leather sandals dangled from her toes, forcing Kaoru to flex her ankles and arch her feet to keep them off the floor.

“You’re just lucky I live on the ground floor,” Sano grunted with a wince as he leaned his head away from her mouth. Bouncing her up higher onto his back he warned, “And if you don’t stop pulling my hair and screeching in my ear, I might have to drop your cookie-heavy butt onto the bare floor.”

Sputtering in incoherent rage, Kaoru held onto her self control by the tips of her fingers. Her vision was a red haze bordered by chibi Sanos with x’s drawn for eyes and limbs spread-eagled after being beaten unconscious. As soon as they were safe, she would be making Megumi a widow. Her friend would just have to understand.

“Um, you okay back there, Jou-chan?” Sano asked warily. “You’ve become awfully quiet.” Adjusting his grip on her thighs, he exited the building and added, “You know that I was kidding, right? Right?”

“Just keep walking, Rooster-head.” Kaoru growled. “It’s too late to dig yourself out of that one.”

A few minutes later they reached the poorer section of the city. Most of the buildings in this area had little to no magic go into their construction, according to Megumi. It should be safe. “I think you can put me down now,” Kaoru informed Sano in an even tone.

As he slowly set her down, Kaoru noticed that Sano balanced on the balls of his feet and kept a firm grip on her leg just in case the solid ground once again became swampy. When nothing happened, they all let out a relieved breath. Sano stood up and turned around. “You okay?” he asked. Kaoru appreciated his care and concern, but it didn’t get him off of the hook.

“Thank you for the ride,” she said sincerely. Then her voice hardened. “Me and my ‘ _cookie-heavy butt’_ are fine.” Kaoru cracked her knuckles. “In fact, why don’t I give you another one of my favorite foods in appreciation? It’s called a knuckle sandwich. Not as sweet as a cookie, but making it sure helps me keep my figure.”

Sano turned to look beseechingly at Megumi, but his wife just shook her head. “No woman would protect you after that comment.” At his wild-eyed look she sighed, “Though as your wife I do promise to bandage your wounds. If you’re good for the rest of the day, I’ll even kiss them better.”

“Take it like a man,” Kaoru drawled before launching herself at Sano and wrestling him to the ground.

After beating up on Sano for a while, the trio spent the rest of the day trying to escape the city – _trying_ being the operative word. They hadn’t succeeded. Everything that could go wrong with their escape plan had. _Some_ how (Kaoru had her suspicions) the wallet that Sano had left sitting on the floor of his bedroom full of cash was practically empty when he pulled it out to buy them lunch. At first, Megumi accused him of gambling the money away in a drunken stupor and then forgetting about it.

What worried Kaoru was that Sano acknowledged that that could be a possibility on any other night. _How could my friend, the responsible doctor, end up marrying a man who was financially unstable?_ At least Megumi earned enough to support the both of them.

Besides which, Kaoru didn’t see Megumi putting up with any man who gambled her rent away. She would reserve judgment for now until she knew more. As long as they were happy and healthy, she’d keep her nose out of it. Otherwise, the good doctor would probably snap it off at the tip.

Although Sano had admitted the possibility, he refuted it with the simple fact that the two of them had ordered take-out the night before when Megumi had shown up. “Remember when I pulled out my wallet and you teased me about having no reason not to give the deliveryman a good tip?” he asked his wife.

Snapping her fingers, Megumi exclaimed, “You’re right, I had forgotten about that. For once you actually did have some money. Just our luck you’d leave it at the house.”

Without money or credit cards they hadn’t been able to rent a car. They didn’t even have enough to take a taxi. Coincidentally, Megumi was also missing her wallet. She’d dropped her purse onto the floor in the apartment. Because of the rush, she’d merely swept everything back in without taking inventory. Megumi assumed that her wallet must have merely tumbled under a chair unnoticed. _Right, and if Megumi really believes_ that _, then I have some ocean-front property I’d like to sell her. Darn sneaky building cheating and helping Kenshin by sabotaging our escape. I hope it gets condemned!_

Kaoru’s grumbling was interrupted by Megumi. “People think you’re crazy when you talk to yourself, you know.” In reply, Kaoru crossed her eyes and stuck out her tongue. “How old are you again?” sniped Megumi. “And stop muttering about cockroaches and termites. Sano knows better than to try and make me sleep somewhere like that. At least he’d better!” She scowled over at her husband where he stood squeezed into a phone booth. “He’s found us a safe place to stay with a friend. As long as it’s reasonably clean and I can sit down and take off these heels, I’ll be happy. Come on.”

Of course Megumi had refused to wear something sensible like sneakers for their escape. _Did Megumi even own sneakers?_ Looking down at her aching feet and the red leather sandals, Kaoru laughed at herself and followed. She hadn’t exactly chosen the most sensible footwear to borrow either. _What was it Megumi always used to say? ‘Pain is temporary, but a fashionable impression lasts forever.’_

While they’d trekked all over the city, Kaoru had filled Megumi in on all that had happened with Kenshin. Of course, some details she just couldn’t share. A few times it was because she didn’t want Sano to overhear. Other times Kaoru’s tongue would become thick and refuse to form the syllables. Nevertheless, despite a few holes Megumi knew the majority of the story by the end of that day.

The devious doctor even managed to wrangle out some of the more intimate details when Sano went off to peddle favors with his shady friends. He’d come back with money, thankfully, and allowed Kaoru to escape before Megumi demanded a blow-by-blow account of her night. Well, to be honest Megumi had already demanded, but right when Kaoru broke down and started describing, Sano had returned and changed the subject.

As the day went on Kaoru found herself able to do certain uncanny things just by thinking to herself, _if I was Kenshin, how would I do this?_ A second later the answer would unfurl in her mind like a blossoming flower. That worked wonders except when she thought about how to escape from him. Then her Kenshin advice-voice would always whisper, _you can’t_. She learned to stop asking that question real quick. Obviously such an answer only meant that the voice wasn’t infallible.

When Kaoru had awakened Lord Battousai’s fountain, she had somehow become connected to him and his memories. She wasn’t anywhere near sorting them out or understanding even a fraction of them. Nevertheless, when he’d forged the soul bond it must have strengthened and even started to organize that connection.

At least they hadn’t been caught by Lord Battousai or Shinomori yet. They should be grateful for that. Tapping Kenshin’s memories, Kaoru had figured out how to make herself invisible. She wasn’t sure quite how she’d done it or how it worked; she just knew the knowledge had come from the part of him now inside of her.

Unfortunately, the invisibility spell made her invisible to Kenshin alone. Everyone else could still see her. At least it meant that Kenshin’s spells were unable get a fix on her position. Nevertheless, Shinomori and half the cops in town were probably looking for them. Kaoru sensed that there was some way to make herself invisible to everyone else too, but Kenshin’s memories on that point were too complex for her to figure out.

So despite her handy attempts at magic, the three of them were still forced to adopt disguises. Sano managed to scrounge up some amazingly bizarre items that totally changed their appearances. They got to keep their shoes, but put on clothing that managed to make even the ever-fashionable and beautiful Megumi look shapeless and boring. Worn baseball caps, wigs, and sunglasses further obscured their features.

After Sano’s styling, the trio looked nothing like the pictures springing up on walls and poles all over the city. Shinomori must have raided Megumi’s picture album, because the wanted posters had a formal picture of Kaoru from a few years ago. Even though the disguises seemed successful, Sano kept them from betting cocky. He made sure they were careful to avoid anyone who might be searching for them.

On top of that, Kaoru still had to watch out for any devious tricks Lord Battousai might have put the buildings up to. Whenever she came close to a magical building, it recognized her. Most of them didn’t want to help her either. They, too, wanted her to stay. Some could be persuaded to stay quiet, but not all. Luckily, her invisibility spell had somehow expanded at the feel of Kaoru’s panicked desire to keep the snitching buildings silent. The new spell now kept the buildings from telling Kenshin exactly where she was until she was long gone. Otherwise she’d have been locked up somewhere earlier this morning, she didn’t doubt. Even though the spell had expanded once, she didn’t trust it to protect her further if she ran into a group of men armed with billy clubs.

Despite these limitations, Kaoru found it ironic that the thing that had forced her to run, her affinity with magic, was also the thing helping her to escape. When she told this to Megumi, the tired and sweaty doctor had merely snapped that Kaoru had misused the correct meaning of dramatic irony. Kaoru ignored the rest of the doctor’s rant on the downfall of the education system. Her best friend was worn-out, dirty, and hot. An unhappy Megumi was a scathing Megumi. Kaoru decided that she probably wasn’t missing much by not listening.

In fact, Kaoru sometimes credited her ability to space out during Megumi’s rants with the longevity and success of their friendship. Their early years had been full of lots of loud arguments (Kaoru), spiteful words (Megumi), and bitter silences. Luckily they’d both become expert at forgiving and forgetting. Nowadays they could bicker amicably. Usually. Only listening to every other paragraph of Megumi’s tirades kept Kaoru feeling civil. One of these days she’d have to ask Megumi what method she used.

Although Sano seemed to know a lot more about sneaking around than your average law-abiding citizen, even his talents couldn’t overcome the many obstacles they encountered. Routes were blocked by construction, crowds of people (which Kaoru couldn’t handle wading through), or tall, slick fences that sprang up out of nowhere.

Alternate modes of transportation besides foot were also out. Any car she touched inevitably stopped running. She couldn’t even ride a bicycle. After about a block the tires would go flat or the rims would warp. Megumi had refused point-blank to even contemplate trying skateboards or rollerblades. Going on foot, four of those six feet aching from wearing heels, and constantly backtracking meant that they’d barely made any discernable distance from Sano’s apartment at all.

Several times Kaoru had sensed Kenshin’s presence nearby. Only luck, Sano’s talent for finding alternate routes and disguises, and Kaoru’s erratic intuition and magic had kept them safe. All three of them were feeling discouraged.

Despite these problems, Megumi and Sano didn’t seem to resent Kaoru for their present predicament. When she’d mentioned trying to forge ahead on her own and let them get back to their normal lives, Megumi had forbidden it in no uncertain terms. Sano had seconded his wife, handed Kaoru a bottle of cold water, and told her to stop talking nonsense. Of course, he had to ruin the warm glow in her heart by questioning if a girl like her was even capable of talking sense.

Megumi seemed undecided on whether to be pleased or not about how Kaoru and Sano had hit it off. They got along smashingly, in the sense that they enjoyed teasing each other and smashing the other person into the nearest object or wall. Kaoru found it to be a great stress reliever.

After a day of running, they’d settled in at a two room apartment on the poor side of town. All of the buildings in the area were relatively new, non-magical, and shoddily built. Ignoring the strange yellow stain on the ceiling, Kaoru gazed outside the window.

A gibbous moon now illuminated the night sky. Moonlight merged with electric lighting to form a glowing lattice across the city darkened only by the shadows of clouds, trees, and tall buildings. Most of the stars were obscured from view. Only the brightest of stars, those that formed the main lines and corners of major constellations, could be seen.

Leaning folded arms against the windowsill of their small hideaway, Kaoru sighed. Then she stuck her tongue out at her reflection in the dark window. The rumble of Sano and Megumi’s voices could be heard from the other room, but their quiet words were indistinguishable. Pushing open the slightly grimy window, she leaned her head out and squinted up into the sky.

She missed seeing the sprinkling of tiny stars. Back home she loved to sit out in her backyard after dinner. Crossing her arms behind her head, she’d lay down in the sweet-smelling grass that, depending on if she’d remembered recently to water or not, would sometimes poke through her shirt and tickle her skin. Then she’d gaze up into the atmosphere. Sometimes she’d watch clouds curl across the blue sky or try and name all the colors of a sunset.

However, her favorite view could only be seen at night. Kaoru preferred a starry field for her heavenly contemplations. The vastness of the velvety blackness and the far distance of the twinkling stars always calmed her. It tickled her fancy to know that the darkness only existed because of her lack of vision. If she could see to the very rim of the expanding universe, every dark space in the sky would be filled with distant stars. There would be no darkness, only varying intensities and shades of light.

Since their hideout had two rooms, Kaoru had volunteered to sleep on some spare pillows in the outer room while the couple took the bedroom. Their apartment had little to no furniture. Setting up her makeshift bed against one wall, Kaoru left the window open and lay down. She hoped the fresh night air would help her calm down. Of course, now that she was settled it began to feel a little cold, but she lacked the energy to get up and close the window. Drowsily she rubbed her finger back and forth along a divot gouged into the floor. The edges were smooth.

As her eyelids dropped to half-mast, she felt a gentle tingle in her fingertip. Letting her eyes slide closed, she hazily saw herself surrounded by a pack of curious yet wary puppies. Smiling gently, she let herself fall into the dream.

The bravest puppy sniffed her hand inquisitively with its damp nose. The nose lifted, only to be replaced by a wet and friendly tongue. Giggling in her sleep, she curled onto her side. Then she carefully scratched the bold puppy behind the head.

Soon the other puppies ventured forward to be stroked and petted. After a few minutes of this, they curled up around her limbs in a dog pile of fur and body heat and went to sleep. Now warm and content, Kaoru allowed oblivion to take her, unaware of how her right hand drifted off the pillows to rest gently against the wooden floor. Or of how her left hand lovingly clasped the koi necklace from Kenshin.

 

 

By Besa-chan

https://www.deviantart.com/besa-chan/art/A-Sinking-Feeling-Unfinished-35959664


	6. Sunrise, Sunset

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Disclaimer: Rurouni Kenshin does not belong to me. If they did, I’d make them do an episode of Gokusen! Kaoru would be Yankumi, and Kenshin could look young enough to be Shin, though he doesn’t really have the personality for it. But he does have the red hair! Sano and Yahiko would be great as delinquent students! And Megumi could be the chorus/English teacher Fujiyama Sensei who flirts with her student. Ohoho-!

“Elemental catastrophes” Megumi stated with precise enunciation, “such as floods or hail storms, I can handle.” Her words were accompanied by several hard nudges to Kaoru’s tender limbs. Blinking groggily up at her friend, Kaoru had no idea why she’d been so rudely awoken.  Grumpily she tried to push away the doctor’s feet.  Why’d Megumi want to talk about the weather now?  Especially since early morning sunbeams streamed brightly through the window, gilding Megumi’s dark hair with chocolate highlights and forecasting fair skies.   The doctor ignored Kaoru’s swatting hands and continued talking. “I can even take earthquakes with equanimity.  Haven’t I demonstrated that?” 

After a moment of silence, Kaoru realized that the question wasn’t rhetorical.  “Sure, Megumi.  Can I go back to sleep now?”

“No, you cannot go back to-,” Megumi paused, pursed her lips, and took a deep breath through her nose, causing her nostrils to flare.   _Ew, I didn’t need to see that_. Kaoru gave up on slumber.  Sitting up, she rubbed the sleep away from her eyes with a final yawn.  Then she looked up at Megumi and waited groggily for an explanation, a point, or a plate of breakfast.  _Preferably the latter_. 

“Kaoru,” Megumi began in a long-suffering tone of voice, ‘We’ve been friends since the day you were born and I’ve gotten used to crazy stunts, but this is the outside of enough!” _Drat, her hands are empty, I don’t smell anything cooking, and she’s got that look on her face that means she’s going to lecture for at least an hour._  Hands on hips, Megumi announced, “And I don’t see any sexy red-heads lurking around, so logic dictates that this has to be your fault.”

_Hey, who’s she to call Kenshin sexy!?_ Kaoru stopped listening and started fuming.  _She’s already got a man.  Of course, with a husband like the rooster head, any other man_ would _be trading up. Especially a man like Lord Battousai. He’d be a huge upgrade. In fact, I can’t think of_ anyone _higher on the manflesh scale than Kenshin.  If Kenshin were available, which he’s NOT._ Kaoru ground her teeth together. _Not that he’s mine, but Sano’s a good guy and Megumi should stay with him.  Adultery and murder are both sins and sins mean hell and hell is hot and Megumi hates being too hot… so I’m worrying over nothing.  Because there’s nothing to worry about.  Nothing at all._ Forcing herself to unclench her teeth, Kaoru looked up just in time to dodge the pillow Megumi flung at her head.

“Have you been listening to me at all?” the irate doctor asked.

Standing up to give herself more room to run away, Kaoru answered with wounded pride, “Of course!”  Megumi cocked an eyebrow.  Kaoru fidgeted.  The doctor waited.  Five seconds later, Kaoru’s confident façade crumbled like stale crackers under a toddler’s fist. “To some... of the, the first few sentences,” she mumbled.  An exasperated sigh expelled from Megumi’s mouth. “What d’ya expect?  I just woke up,” Kaoru defended.

A manicured foot tapped impatiently on the plush carpeting. “Then. Explain. Our. Rooms,” Megumi bit out.

“Huh? Explain wha-,” Kaoru gaped as she took a good look around and was forced to do a double take.  The bare and pitted floorboards had been covered by a plush blue carpet.  The yellow stain on the ceiling had disappeared under a fresh coat of ivory paint and a cut crystal light fixture now hung from the ceiling.  The cushions Kaoru had made into a bed on the floor had transformed into a padded window seat.  Glass fronted mahogany cabinets flanked a slate blue couch built into the opposite wall.  Along with these improvements, an extra door had appeared where only a sink used to be and led into a brand new kitchen. “Well,” Kaoru laughed in amazement, “I’ll be a monkey’s uncle.”  

“What you’ll be is a dead monkey if you don’t explain how this happened,” Megumi threatened.  “It,” a hesitant light entered her suddenly doe-like brown eyes, “it _wasn’t_ Lord Battousai, was it?”

After relaxing her mental bindings from around that _other-_ sense, Kaoru once again examined the room.  “No, no it wasn’t him, it was… oh!” she exclaimed.  “Whoops.”

At Kaoru’s words, all hint of softness fled from Megumi’s face.  Kaoru didn’t have to worry about potential storms outside; Megumi’s face had just filled with thunder clouds. “What do you mean, whoops?”

“It was the puppies,” Kaoru said as if that would explain everything.  “You know I can’t resist puppies, and I thought it was just a dream.”

“And dream puppies have to do with magic, how?” Kaoru opened her mouth to explain, but Megumi held up a hand.  “Wait, I should probably sit down for this.”

After Megumi elegantly sat down on the new slate blue couch and crossed her legs, Kaoru started.  “Well, the puppies are the magic, see?”

“No.”  Megumi was not looking cooperative.  This was going to be a tough sale.

“Okay, well, let me put it this way.  The puppies are bits of unbound magic roaming the city looking for buildings to call home. Last night as I was falling asleep, they came over and cuddled up with me. I thought it was just a dream so I, well….”

Megumi groaned, “Kaoru, you didn’t.”

“They were sad and lonely, I had to help them. You know I can’t resist cute baby animals!”

“We aren’t talking about baby animals,” objected Megumi.  “We are talking about magical manifestations.”

 “Manifestations that acted just like puppies!” Kaoru practically shouted.  Forcing herself to calm down, she continued. “They said that Papa-Lord, I mean Lord Battousai, hadn’t come to play with them in a long time and some of the older of the unbound spells were thinking about letting themselves fade away completely.  I couldn’t just let them die!  And the spell puppies just want to love and be loved.  They’ll take good care of the people living in these buildings. I know they will,” she knelt down and grabbed her friend’s hands tightly, willing her to understand.

After a moment of staring into each others eyes, the smooth mask of Megumi’s censure softened.  “Alright,” the doctor sighed and squeezed her hands back gently.  “I know the way you get with baby anything.” 

Smiling gratefully, Kaoru released Megumi’s hands and stood up.  “Have I told you lately what a great friend you are?”

“Yes, but flattery is why I let you borrow my shoes.  Feel free to be more specific as you list my many great qualities.”  Smiling, Megumi stood up and smoothed down her slacks.  Glancing at her watch, she sighed. “Unfortunately, we’ll have to do that later.  It would take a blind idiot not to notice the changes in this section of the city, and Lord Battousai’s chief of security is anything but a blind idiot. Trust me, Shinomori knows where we are and his people are either already here searching or else on their way.  Sano’s outside scouting, but as soon as he gets back we have to leave.”

While folding the blankets from her bed, Kaoru asked over her shoulder, “Why do you talk of Shinomori like he’s omniscient?  He can’t know _everything_ that goes on in this city.”

“I’m not so sure,” Megumi said softly with a troubled frown. 

“What do you mean by that?” Kaoru asked with trepidation.

Red nails ran distractedly through Megumi’s long black hair.  “Didn’t you wonder why I never came back to the apartment that night?  Why I was with Sano when the spell I bought for you activated?”

A blush stained Kaoru’s cheeks. “Actually, I was so shocked at the news of your marriage and your,” a smirk twisted her lips, “state of dishabille that I forgot to ask.”  Finishing with the blanket, she sat back on her heels.  “So? What happened?”

“Well,” the doctor looked off into the distance as she started speaking, “you remember me stomping down to the messenger’s car with righteous indignation?”

“Of course, your heels echoed quite commandingly as you went down the hall.”  Kaoru winked. “Even if I was still in shock over the fact that you’d actually kissed me.”

Megumi tossed her hair behind her shoulder and laughed foxily.  “Sorry about that.  It once worked on a stalker ex-boyfriend who’d been refusing to leave me alone. Besides, that was the only loophole I could see to get out of the claiming law.”

“So what happened after you got into the car?  I saw Kenshin, I mean Lord Battousai, down there with you, and then suddenly I heard the lock on the door click and he was standing behind me in the apartment.”

A frustrated sigh escaped Megumi as she sat back down on the couch. “Lord Battousai must have used magic to make me think he was escorting me downstairs.  After I got into the car, the door closed and automatically locked. They must have child-locked the door, because it wouldn’t open.  The messenger was also gone. Then the opposite door opened and Shinomori Aoshi, Lord Battousai’s head of security, got into the car.  You remember him from that afternoon, I take it?”

“Ah ha,” Kaoru interrupted, “of course I do.  And this is where something happened to change your opinion of him.  Did he say something to you that sounded too sneaky and all-knowing?”

“I’m getting to that.” Megumi huffed with irritation.  “Anyway, after the car took off I asked about the red-headed messenger, but Shinomori would only say that it wasn’t my concern.”  A speculative frown appeared on Megumi’s face.  “Actually, I remember being surprised at the way Shinomori looked.  Unlike that afternoon in his office, his face seemed almost unnaturally pale.  Plus, I noticed that the lapel of his jacket was torn, as if someone had grabbed it too harshly and ripped the seams.”  Shaking the thought off, she continued.  “Anyway, he wouldn’t answer any of my questions or tell me where we were going.  I could tell it wasn’t towards the courthouse, but that was it.   It was only when I mentioned that you’d be all alone in the apartment and might get worried that he finally said something.”

Leaning forward, Kaoru asked, “Well, what did he say?”

She huffed out a dark laugh.  “He told me, ‘Lord Battousai will take care of her.’”  Megumi imitated Shinomori’s flat tone of voice.  “As you might suspect, that really didn’t really comfort me.  Especially when it somehow clicked that the short redhead we’d left behind was Lord Battousai.  I almost passed out when the icicle man next to me confirmed it.  When the car stopped, I thought he’d finally decided to listen to my complaints and let me go.  I thought it just a fortuitous coincidence that we’d ended up in front of Sano’s apartment.”

“But it wasn’t?” questioned Kaoru quietly.

“It wasn’t,” her friend echoed, voice just as soft.  “I hadn’t told anyone about Sano, no one but you.  And even you didn’t know how serious it had gotten.  After our last big argument, I hadn’t even seen him for a few weeks.  We’d talked once or twice on the phone, but I was still mad at him.  Yet despite that, Shinomori _knew._  He escorted me to Sano’s door and told me that they were letting me stay the night at my _husband’s_ apartment instead of in a cell as a favor to you.  Somehow, he knew.”

“Could he have found out from your marriage certificate?” Kaoru asked.

Megumi shook her head, “No, we got married out of town and since I wasn’t sure I wanted to stay married once I sobered up, we still hadn’t finished filing the paperwork.  It should still be sitting in a manila folder in that seedy chapel we went to, just waiting for the processing fee.  There’s still no public record anywhere.  I don’t know how Shinomori could have found out.”

“Wait,” Kaoru said, “the car you picked me up from the mansion in, wasn’t that Sano’s?  Maybe they traced the license plate!”

A red flush stained Megumi’s cheeks.  “I’d considered that, but Sanosuke informed me later on that night that it wasn’t really his car; he’d _borrowed_ it from an impound lot when I called him for the favor.  He _says_ he sold his car a few weeks ago to build up his savings.  More likely to pay off gambling debts if you ask me.” 

Kaoru could practically hear Megumi’s teeth grinding.  “I’d have put him in the hospital for that one.  We could’ve been arrested!”  Thinking about her near escape from the security chief’s office, Kaoru added, “Again!  And you still slept with him after hearing that?” Amazement tinged Kaoru’s tone.

Megumi’s angry blush pinked into embarrassment, “I wasn’t planning on it.  I straight out told him it was never going to happen, but he- and then that thing with his tongue- and well, before I knew it ‘no’ turned into ‘yes’ and…” she trailed off in remembrance, a dreamy look seeping onto her face.

Hiding her laugh in a cough, Kaoru couldn’t help but tease, “I guess he isn’t as whipped as I thought.” This broke Megumi out of her trance. Before the good doctor could think about retaliation, Kaoru continued, “So maybe Sano told someone about the two of you or was seen taking the car,” Kaoru suggested.

“He claims not. I believe him.”  Megumi bit her lip.

Coming over to the slate blue couch, Kaoru plopped down next to her friend and gave her a scolding tap on the chin. “Hey now, no biting.  That’s my bad habit.”

Releasing her abused lip, Megumi made a face and then picked up the thread of her story.  “After knocking on Sano’s door, Shinomori had the gall to order me to use this opportunity to work out my marital troubles.” 

A startled laugh burst out of Kaoru.  “You’re kidding me!”

“He said that Lord Battousai did not want my personal problems upsetting you.  I almost had a Kaoru moment and bashed him across the face.”

Kaoru squeezed Megumi’s arm and joked, “I’ve always been a bad influence.  Please tell me you hit him?”

Shifting her weight, Megumi continued her story. “I didn’t get the chance. Before I could let loose, Sano answered the door with this adorably confused look on his face.”

“Adorable?” Kaoru interrupted.  “You actually thought that in the middle of your sputtering at Shinomori?”

“Oh, shut up.” rejoined Megumi. “Anyway, Sano answered the door and Shinomori literally pushed me inside.  Luckily Sano caught me or else I’d have ended belly-up on the floor. Before I could swing back around he said,” Megumi once again imitated Shinomori’s tone of voice. “‘This time there will be no rescues. At dawn, you are free to go.’”  Her voice rose back to her natural register. “On the heels of his words a wind came out of nowhere and slammed the door shut.  We tried for almost an hour, but couldn’t get it to open.  Even the windows and, my last resort, the air vents, wouldn’t unfasten.”  Megumi clenched her fists in remembered frustration.  “Magic had welded them all shut.”

Placing a hand over Megumi’s white-knuckled fists, she said, “Thank you for trying.  It does make me feel better to know you didn’t just abandon me to have some wild romp with a man.”  Kaoru laughed at Megumi’s expression and gave her best friend a one-armed hug.  “So then what?”

“You know the rest.  The next morning, you appeared and we all escaped before Lord Battousai and his henchmen could reach the apartment.”

“That doesn’t,” Kaoru stated with a raised brow, “explain how you went from searching for an exit to wearing only a sheet in the living room when I arrived. Or how Sano came to be wearing only that ugly orange pillow over his….”

Megumi threw up her hands.  “Fine! I was upset. We talked. Sano comforted me and, well, one thing led to another.  We are married, after all, and I decided to try out one the perks of the institution.”

Kaoru gave her a disgusted look.  “Oh come on!  You’ve got to be kidding me.  You’d never let me get away with a bare-bones explanation like that.  Details!”

“Well, that’s why I’m me and you’re you.”  Patting Kaoru on the back condescendingly, Megumi changed the subject.  “So last night while you were sleeping, you somehow gave all of the puppies a doghouse of their own?”

Grumbling, Kaoru allowed herself to be distracted.  “Not all of them, just the ones that were going to fade and the pack of puppy-magic that came and snuggled up to me last night.  It was mostly instinctual.  Doing magic is like trying to piece together a big puzzle.  I only have a few pieces put together, no final picture telling me what I’m trying to make, and most of the pieces are scattered around the room hiding under dusty couches and tables with the broken crayons and bubblegum wrappers.

A sympathetic smile escaped Megumi. “At least you like puzzles.”  Kaoru stuck out her tongue at her friend.  “What about Lord Battousai’s knowledge of magic? You said he marked you that night and made a soul-bond. Can’t you use that?”

Folding her arms around her stomach, Kaoru hugged her sides. “I still don’t have most of Lord Battousai’s memories sorted out,” she softly revealed. “I’m not sure I _want_ to sort them all out.  So much of it is scary and sad and,” Kaoru stood up again and started to pace across the plush blue carpet.  “And confusing.  The most frustrating part is that the more I learn, the more I…,” Kaoru cut off her explanation.  Megumi had almost forced her to voice something better left unsaid.

A sympathetic smile tilted Megumi’s lips.  “The more you come to love,” Kaoru froze and stared blankly at the wall. Her best friend calmly finished her sentence, “puppies?” 

Hearing Megumi’s words, a surprised chuckle spilled from Kaoru’s mouth.  “Yes, puppies AND puppy-shaped magic,” she smilingly agreed.

Walking towards the newly adjoining kitchen, Megumi said, “I’ll go put something together for a running breakfast while you go to the bathroom and put back on your disguise.  You better be quick, because we should probably be gone already.  And Kaoru?”

“Yes?” she acknowledged as she gathered up her things, barely noticing the odd tone of Megumi’s voice.

“It is okay to care.”

Wrinkling her brow, Kaoru asked, “For the puppies?”

“For the puppies’ papa.”

 

* * *

 

Sunrise.  Waves of gold and cream light lapped across the sky, washing away the darkness of night, leaving only squeaky clean white clouds and blue sky in their wake.  Himura Kenshin, Lord Battousai and Master of The City, stood on the precipice of the roof and took in the buildings and fields that made up his domain. 

When the sun topped the distant, green leaved mountains and spilled liquid gold onto his hands, Kenshin glanced down with detached curiosity. _Will the sunlight wash away my darkness as well?_   Four parallel scratches, speckled with dark red scabs and slightly swollen, ran across his wrist and the back of his hand.  _No_ , his stony façade twisted into a bitter smile.  _As if a man such as I would be so blessed._

But he had been blessed, for a few short hours.  When he’d discovered Kaoru, his golden koi, emotion had burst across his mind in a warm wave.  It had been so long since Kenshin had truly felt happiness that he’d been forced to pause and identify the emotion. 

After the bonding, Kenshin had brought Kaoru back to his room to sleep. After slipping her under the covers and smoothing down her wayward hair, he’d gone to the windows and opened the curtains. Then he’d returned to the bed, removed his clothing, and wrapped himself around her small form, tucking her head beneath his chin.  

Nuzzling the crown of her head, he inhaled deeply to memorize her scent, memorize every detail of that moment.  She smelled of jasmine and hazelnut.  It made him hungry for things other than dessert.  Kaoru by moonlight made his stomach clench.

_But what about in sunlight?_   _How would she appear in the morning, sun-kissed and tousled?_   The not knowing was almost a physical ache. _What secrets would sunlight reveal in her cerulean eyes and black satin hair? With the sunrise gilting her body, would her skin shimmer like the scales of a golden koi?_

Setting his internal clock to awaken just before dawn, he cast one last glance at the open curtains before allowing his eyelashes to slip closed.  He felt exquisitely content. The soft susurrations of Kaoru’s breath puffing against his throat lulled him into sleep. 

When he woke up only a few hours later, it was still dark.  A noise from outside his room had woken him to full alertness.  Not bothering with clothes, he quickly but gently unraveled himself from Kaoru’s body and grabbed his sword.  They should be safe in his own home, but with Kaoru there he refused to take any chances.

Unsheathing the katana, he moved to the side of the doorway and waited, silent death to anyone foolish enough to try and sneak inside.  Footsteps approached his door and then paused.  If he hadn’t been listening so intently, he never would have noticed the sound.  Whoever waited outside had been trained to move silently. The intruder’s energy seemed familiar, but because of the bonding with Kaoru his magical senses were not at full strength.  It could be either a friend or a familiar enemy.

In the faint light streaming through the uncovered window, Kenshin saw the brass doorknob slowly turn.  Then the door noiselessly opened.  A shadowy figure slipped inside. 

Leaping forward, Kenshin grabbed the intruder’s long braid and wrenched them up against his bare chest, restraining their arms and setting the razor-sharp edge of his blade against their throat with just enough pressure to threaten but not enough to break the skin unless they tried to resist.  All of this took place in the time between a breath and a sigh.

In the midst of his attack, Kenshin realized the identity of his intruder.  But they should know better than to sneak into his room in the middle of the night.  Being made to leave a warm and sweet-smelling Kaoru, combined with his weakness from the bonding, made Kenshin irritable and little inclined towards forgiveness.   He moved his blade away from skin, but not away from his intruder’s throat.  Their arms also stayed restrained.

“What?”  Kenshin asked in a flat tone made even more lethal by its very softness.  The strain of the bonding spell luckily kept Kaoru sleeping through the commotion.

“Lo- Lord Battousai, it’s me! Makimachi Misao,” she whispered shakily.  The flexing and unflexing of her muscles communicated her desire to struggle, but trapped between his chest and the double ring of his tense arm and sharp steel, she kept herself frozen.  Perhaps she realized that struggling would make her situation worse.

“I know. Now, why are you trying to sneak into my room?”  He had always trusted the girl. Yet she had never tried to sneak into his room before, either. The break in routine bothered him. With Kaoru sleeping so trustingly in his bed, he’d release the girl only if and when she’d explained her presence to his satisfaction.  He sincerely hoped she’d be able to satisfy him. 

It would pain Kenshin to have to hurt her, someone he considered a trusted member of his household.  Not to mention how it would upset the majority of his security forces.  _Yet if his security was compromised, better to know it now_.  He would not allow anything to threaten Kaoru or his city. 

When he didn’t immediately release her, she tensed even further.  “I came with a message.”  Forcibly relaxing her body to indicate complete surrender, she elaborated softly.  “Your representative called about that meeting you left so abruptly this afternoon.  Someone on the council is trying to get the terrorists off with a slap on the wrists instead of having them stripped of their powers and imprisoned.  They’re holding a secret emergency session right now.  We just found out.”

Kenshin swore in frustration. Although his tone roughened, he did not otherwise change position.  “Why didn’t you knock?” With her locked between his arm and chest, he could clearly feel the vibration as she swallowed.

“I’m sorry, my lord. I didn’t want to wake your Lady.  I was going to come to your side of the bed and quietly wake you.  I swear, my lord, that was my intention,” she pleaded.  “My loyalty to you is absolute.  I’d sooner be boiled in acid than cause harm to either you or your new Lady.  Please, my lord.” 

Hearing the tears and sincerity in her voice, Kenshin released her and stepped back. In a voice now soft with gentleness rather than intimidation, he said, “I believe you, Makimachi-san.  Forgive my roughness.”   Misao shakily turned to face him.  “But please remember to knock next time.  I’m trained to see people sneaking in on me as threats.” 

She nodded her head and swiped her hands across her face to dry her tears.  Seeing her glistening eyes, Kenshin felt a pang of guilt.  He hadn’t meant to scare her that badly.  Well, he had, but only when he thought she had betrayed him.  After her explanation, he now felt remorse.  She’d learned her lesson.  He just wished it hadn’t come so harshly.  “Are you all right?”

“I’m fine, my lord. Please forgive me.” Misao closed her eyes and bowed humbly.

“Of course,” Kenshin replied.  “While I get dressed, assemble my advisors in the main conference room.  Set up guards outside my room for the lady as well.”

“Yes, my lord.”  Opening her eyes, she straightened to leave.  Half-turned away, she suddenly whipped back around.  “You’re naked!” she squeaked in surprise, looking him up and down quickly.  At the loud exclamation, Kaoru shifted position on the bed but didn’t wake.

Even in the darkness of the room, Kenshin could see Misao’s bright blush.  “And?” he asked.  She was the one who had snuck in without knocking, after all.

Mouth opening and closing, she stuttered in a high-pitched tone of voice, “I- I’ll just go and get the guards.”  Stumbling backwards out the door, she turned and ran.

Negotiations had taken longer than he’d intended. By the time he managed to escape, the sun had long since risen.  His intended morning vigil stolen, Kenshin consoled himself with the thought that he’d have many opportunities in the days and years to come. 

Then he’d felt the magical wards around the house ripple.  Dashing to the window, he was just in time to see Kaoru standing in a puddle of sunlight, black hair rippling with sienna highlights, as she held up a spelled letter and disappeared into the river of magical wind that suddenly swirled through his courtyard.

As she disappeared, and he knew it had been voluntary despite the wounded voice inside selfishly wishing otherwise, rage and anguish in equal measure flooded his heart.  The emotional swell passed into the magical net crisscrossing the city, shaking buildings and sidewalks alike. 

Luckily, no one had been hurt beyond small cuts and bruises.  Nevertheless, he had sent doctors to every block and discounted rent payments for the month. Kenshin sometimes wondered if the city might be safer tied to someone more emotionally contained like Shinomori.  Yet he knew that the strength to protect so much for so long came from that very same passion.

Kenshin had almost had her a few minutes later when he’d used most of his magical reserves to change the buildings to absorb her and send her back to his mansion. She’d been caught.  His fingers had clasped her wrist and started to reel her back in.  But then she’d raked his hand, loosening his hold just enough to allow her to escape. 

Kenshin could have healed the scratches.  Instead, he kept them as a reminder.  He would not underestimate her again.  Although he now suspected she’d not be won by force, he also suspected she wouldn’t return without it either. His golden koi really was as slippery as a fish.  Yet his magical net covered the city.  And with it, he was determined to net his koi and find out why she’d run away. 

Something had gone wrong between the time he’d left her and when she’d fled that morning. Whatever the problem, he would fix it. Kenshin refused to let her slip into the hazy realm of memory and daydreams.  Most importantly, the sting of his scratches reminded him that Kaoru was out there and real.  As long as she existed, he would find her.

All day long, he and his men had searched the city for her and her friends.  Every time Kenshin felt himself getting close, another urgent call would come from the council.  Despite his personal wishes, duty must be served. Yet he refused to leave the city.  If he did, he had a horrible feeling that Kaoru would disappear from his life forever. 

Kenshin had run his chief of security, Shinomori, ragged with his demands.  The fact that Kaoru had escaped Shinomori twice now cast serious doubts on his security’s proficiency.  _If she could escape twice, why not a third time?_  If it were any other situation, he’d be admiring such a savvy woman.  But with this situation and this woman, his anger, frustration, and fear overshadowed his admiration.  _What if she couldn’t be caught?_ The chief had noticed his distemper, it would be hard to miss, and had responded by becoming even more emotionless. Shinomori was pushing his men hard.  Lord Battousai was pushing him harder.

Sunset had come and gone, and still Kaoru had eluded them. She hadn’t left the city, but that was all of the comfort Kenshin could claim.  With darkness came more frantic phone calls. Forced to stamp out more fires at the council meeting, Kenshin finally pushed through the verdict he’d been working towards at four o’clock in the morning.  The leaders of the terrorists who had used magic to bomb and destroy public stadiums across the country for the past four years would finally be punished. 

Because some members came from prominent families, there had been a lot of money and pressure to commute the sentences.  Yet in the end, justice had prevailed.  It had required the use of cunning, favors, force, and blackmail, but those men would not be retaining their magic or going free. 

With the council session finally concluded, Kenshin hung up the phone and left the house.  Shinomori still hadn’t found Kaoru. By that time, he had been separated from Kaoru longer than he’d physically been in her presence.  Yet she was branded on his heart.

Declining the use of a car, Kenshin walked off alone into the city.  Lack of sleep and direction didn’t deter him. Using the night to hide his more blatant spells, he tried to discover where she’d gone to ground.   Nevertheless, as false dawn finally came to lap over the horizon, his hopes evaporated like morning dew.  After running around all day chasing shadows and elusive perfume, he had come up empty handed and empty hearted.  Again, as always, he would be alone to greet the dawn.

A few minutes later he found himself staring blankly up at Sanosuke Sagara’s apartment building with no memory of how he’d gotten there.  Trudging up to the roof, he stepped to the edge and waited for the sunset he’d missed seeing the previous morning. He thought it would somehow make him feel better.  It didn’t. Without Kaoru, it was just another celestial revolution, same as any other. 

After smoothing a hand across his face and through his tangled red bangs, Kenshin jumped off the three story building.  Landing lightly on his heels in a crouch, he stood up with feline grace.  After a moment of examining the side of building, he walked up to the window of Sagara’s apartment and placed his palm flat against the glass.  Grumbling slightly, the building complied with his wishes and formed an open portal.  Kenshin stepped inside and the wall reformed with a muttered complaint.

Before Kaoru, the magic hadn’t had personalities.  To Kenshin, magical energy possessed different textures.  One spell would be smooth like pudding while another would be crumbly like chalk.  Yet after Kaoru woke his garden, the magic changed.  Different spells had a new layer of perception.  Some, like this apartment building, had become crotchety old men.  Others became ducklings or gossipy housewives. 

Earlier that day, Kenshin had been sent to the north side of the city by a frantic phone call. A small house had suddenly become a skyscraper.  When he’d gone to investigate, the skyscraper had refused to change back.  It wanted to be a giraffe.  Forcing it to change would have destroyed the spell and perhaps even the building.  After the owner got over his shock, he’d agreed to keep the alteration. 

Kenshin didn’t understand why the magic had changed, but he suspected it had to do with Kaoru.  The thought made him smile.  It was one of the few things he’d had to smile about that day.

Looking around the last place he knew with certainty Kaoru had visited, Kenshin felt a catch in his throat. It was empty. She hadn’t been here for almost twenty-four hours.  

Slowly, using only the tips of his calloused fingers, he caressed the cold wooden floorboards.  He had known she wouldn’t come back here, known from Aoshi’s intelligence that Sagara was too proficient at escaping authority to return to his own apartment. As Lord Battousai, he knew this with his head.  But as Himura Kenshin, his heart desperately wished otherwise.

As he blankly stared into the distance, the building whispered sympathetically in his ear about the woman he’d lost.  _Lost…but was she lost, or was he?_  Dipping his hand beneath the wooden floor, Kenshin fished around for a second.   When he pulled his fingers back, he held a white sock.

A second later the floor disgorged a white tennis shoe, mate to the one left in Kenshin’s courtyard.  Letting one shoelace slide between his fingers, Kenshin smiled softly and nudged the shoe back down beneath the floor.  A push of magic sent it to pair with the other abandoned shoe securely ensconced in his bedroom.

 Examining the white sock, Kenshin noticed a brown cross unevenly stitched onto the ankle.  One line was longer than the other.  As he traced the embroidery with a fingernail, he realized that it closely resembled the cross scar on his left cheek.  Although that couldn’t be what it represented, the sight still gave him hope.  There was a small brownish-red stain next to the thread.  _Blood_ , he realized.  Kissing the remnant of Kaoru’s blood tenderly, he tucked the sock carefully into his pocket.

Again his mind wandered to the question, _why was she running away?_   Once again, Kenshin tried to use the bonded part of her soul to discover his answer.  That first night, he’d cast the opening part of the bonding ceremony, exchanging portions of their souls.  Time, ritual, and physical closeness were required to deepen the bond.  Kenshin had heard wondrous things about what such bonds could become.  When completed properly, the couple was said to possess a telepathic awareness of each other. Having such a tie now would certainly make finding Kaoru easier. 

Nevertheless, Kenshin cherished the piece of Kaoru’s soul he now held. At that first exchange, he’d nestled that part of Kaoru deep inside and set about learning everything from it he could.  It wasn’t the direct conduit into her mind that he yearned for, but it was still a morsel of personality that could communicate and give him insights into her past and character. 

From her bonded soul he’d learned much of her history and secrets. But not everything.  His Kaoru was, through and through, even to this small piece of her soul, a stubborn bit of baggage. 

Something had happened to her a little over two years ago; something that he suspected was at the root of why she ran from him.  He needed to know what it was.  If he didn’t know, he couldn’t fix it.  But the bonded bit of her soul kept curled tightly around that knowledge and refused to budge.  Each time he tried she gave him an increasingly hard spiritual thwack over the head.  They’d gotten hard enough to make his eyes cross and his ears ring.

The message was clear – _If I want you to know, I’ll tell you._   He could force the knowledge, and would if he didn’t find her soon, but such an action could irreversibly damage the bond.  He didn’t want to do that. 

Alone in the apartment, he allowed himself a moment of weakness.  Resting his elbows on his knees, he cradled his head in his hands.  Weariness pervaded his being.  Because of the trouble with the council meeting and now Kaoru’s flight, he hadn’t slept more than fifteen hours in the last week.  A headache throbbed through his temples.

A gentle touch against his mind soothed the pain away.  It brought Kenshin’s head up with desperate hope, only to drop again when he realized he was still alone in the dimly lit apartment.  _Sorry, that was just me,_ Kaoru’s bonded soul said.  He felt her sigh. _If you aren’t reunited by sunset, I’ll tell you.  But you should really hear this from the real me._

A genuine smile eased onto Kenshin’s haggard face.  _Thank you._ Yet he did not want to go another full day without her.

Letting his eyes roam around the apartment, he tried to trace the events of the previous morning from this side of the floorboards.  When he realized why he’d lost her, because of the ugly brown carpet and the help of her friends, he felt his anger kindle.  To have his hopes dashed because of such small things… for a moment he felt a dark kernel of antipathy towards Takani Megumi.  

She’d stolen Kaoru away from his mansion twice.  And that kiss… what if it hadn’t just been a ploy to escape the law?  What if she had stolen Kaoru’s heart as well?

From the bond, Kaoru voice scolded, _Don’t you even think of threatening my friend!  Besides, how could it be stealing if she knew me first?_

“Shut up!” Kenshin cried out loud.  Turning his anger on the apartment, he threw his hand out and used a stream of fire to incinerate that cursed brown rug.  Too quickly only embers and curling ashes rimmed with red-gold remained. 

Breathing heavily, Kenshin sharply reigned in his anger.  Kaoru’s soul brooded in the corner of his mind.  He sighed. _I shouldn’t have done that._   “I’m sorry,” Kenshin apologized into the silence of the bond.  Kaoru, sulking, didn’t reply. 

As he tamped down on his anger, the pain and fear it had covered rose to the fore.  “Is that what you’re hiding?  Is that why you ran?  Because of her?”  The sulking silence eased slightly.  “Do you love her?”  A painful spasm seized his heart.  If that was the truth… it must be the gods’ way of punishing him for his evil deeds.  He’d tried to atone for over two centuries, yet obviously his debt ran deeper still.  Before she could answer, he felt the affirmation of her emotions. 

Sucking in a sharp breath, he stood up.  He didn’t have to ask why he deserved it, but that didn’t make it hurt any less.  _Well, yes, of course I love her, bu-,_ Kaoru’s soul started to explain, but Kenshin cut her off before she started describing the depth of their relationship.  He couldn’t deal with that, didn’t want to.  Maybe later when he could use it to formulate a strategy, but right now he felt too raw.

However, until then he couldn’t give her up completely. “If I promised not to threaten that,” he began, keeping the next part of his thought, _at first_ , small and hidden, “do you think she,” he paused and dug his fingers into the wounds around his wrist.  The pain helped him focus, helped him gain a small and shaky control.  “Do you think you would consent to stay in the city?  With her? Your Megumi? Could I ask at least friendship?” 

Dark humor veined through his pride like fractured glass.  After all, didn’t the woman usually offer friendship when romance died?  In her eyes, perhaps the romance had never started, but for him he would be in mourning for decades and centuries to come.  Nonetheless, he could live for a long time with a few crumbs of her life, of her vibrancy. 

From the bond Kenshin felt a torrent of emotions, but he refused to analyze them.  Although he’d asked the questions, he suddenly doubted he could handle the answers.  A moment of absolute vulnerability was all he allowed himself.  Then he slammed that door shut. 

He would not beg any further, not when he knew it was futile.  His life was duty and sorrow, he should not have forgotten that.  Kaoru’s compassion wouldn’t let her abandon the needs of the city.  He would have to be satisfied with that.  Letting out a low, bitter laugh, he used magic to reconstitute the rug on the floor. 

Kenshin could feel the voice of their bond trying to speak, but he was too fragile right now, too hurt and viscerally angry.  Running outside the apartment into a shadowed alleyway between buildings, he let loose a guttural cry and slammed his fist into the concrete ground.  Blocking out her voice and whatever excuses she might have made, he threw his power into the magical latticework of the city, using the strength of his writhing emotions to fix weakening spells and expand the borders of his influence. 

Overextending his magic could be dangerous, but at the moment such concerns blanked from his mind. He didn’t want to think anymore and he couldn’t do what he really wanted to do.  So he repaired things, because if he didn’t fix, he’d forge a swath of destruction that would level most of the city.  Knowing this, he ignored the warning twinges and kept working. 

Suddenly and without warning, his power cut off.  Shocked out of his maelstrom of work, duty, and pain, he collapsed onto the cold, hard ground.  “Wha-,” rasped his tired voice. 

_You idiot, you are going to hurt yourself._   It was her soul’s voice, the gentle and compassionate tone contrasting with her harsh words.   _You didn’t wait to hear my answer_. 

Kenshin’s muscles tensed as he painfully pushed himself to his knees. Before his shaking limbs could once again collapse, he sat back against the rough alley wall. It was cold in the shadows, yet he was too worn out to move, too worn out to block her voice, and in truth, he didn’t want to block her out.

_Oh Kenshin, you sell yourself much too short._   Warmth and strength infused his mind.  _I love Megumi because she’s my best friend, and_ only _as a friend._

Hope welled up in his heart.  Dropping his head back to thunk against the wall, he let out a relieved chuckle.  “I am an idiot, thank God.” 

He heard her exasperated sigh inside his head.  _Yes, you are_.  _Now go home and get some rest._   _You’re going to need your wits about you if you want to persuade her.  Don’t forget that she has a weakness for your handsome face._

Standing up, he dusted off his pants.  “Oh, really?  And what else does she have a weakness for?  Besides baby animals, I mean.”

_Like I’d tell you that easily?  Now go rest!  Or you won’t look handsome, you’ll just look haggard._

“Yes, ma’am,” Kenshin replied with a mental salute as he stepped out into the sunlight. He only needed a couple of hours of rest.  Then he’d find Kaoru, his golden koi.  Caressing the embroidered sock in his pocket, he set off at a brisk pace for home.

 

 

 


	7. When Pigs Fly

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Dictionary:  
> Koi – Depending on the kanji used it can mean: (adj) thick, dense, strong; carp – a fish found in ornamental ponds; (n) love, tender passion (adj. usage would usu. be koishii); (and a bunch of other things that aren’t used here… yet.)  
> Tanuki – Raccoon dog, popular in Japanese myth, canon Kaoru insulting nickname
> 
> AN: There’s a shout out to the series Crusade in here (it’s in the B5 universe, so I had to check it out.  The music’s corny, but I grew quite fond of some of the characters by the end, especially Galen).  I used the flotation device joke that Max Eilerson said to Dureena in the bar/dance scene.

 

Water dripped from the bathroom faucet in a steady rhythm.  Safely ensconced behind the bathroom door, Kaoru grabbed a fluffy towel off the rack and allowed her body to slide down the wall until she was sitting on the cool tile.  Then she took a deep breath, buried her face in the towel, and screamed, muffling her yell of frustrated confusion into the terrycloth. 

Finally she lifted her head.  It was amazing how great a stress reliever screaming could be. Breathing heavily, she cocked her head to see if Megumi had heard and come running.  Only the sound of the toaster popping in the kitchen reached her ears.  Feeling better, she stood up, used the toilet, and washed her hands and face.

Although her face now felt clean and shiny, her scalp itched.  Poking at the pile of dirty and shapeless clothing that comprised her disguise, her face twisted into a moue of discontent.  _Being a fugitive really sucks._  

Mentally counting back the hours, Kaoru realized that she hadn’t taken a shower in over two days.  Two days of grubbing in a garden, getting splattered with hazelnut chocolate sauce, making out with - _you mean escaping from-_ Kenshin, and then running nonstop around the city. Greasy looking hair and an unpleasant whiff of her underarms further corroborated her math. 

Yesterday, Sano had promised that they’d be more difficult to catch than greased pigs.  Kaoru hadn’t realized how literal the analogy had become.  _How can Megumi look so good when I look like this?  I_ am _a greased pig!_ Maybe she should let herself be captured.  One glance – _oh, who was she kidding? -_ One _whiff_ and Kenshin would be more than happy to have her go far away. 

It was tempting, but…. _Come on, Kamiya, where’s your self respect?  Do you really want him to see you as a stinky greased pig?  Do you really want to go out in public while smelling like this?_  

Firming her lips, Kaoru grabbed the hem of her shirt.  A jingle of keys sounded in the outer room, followed by Sano’s voice. She was out of time. No way could she take a full body shower, but maybe if she was quick…. Flinging off her clothing as quickly as possible, Kaoru wet a washcloth with soap and frantically scrubbed her sweaty body.

A fist pounded against the bathroom door.  “You done in there, Jou-chan?  We gotta get goin’!  The hounds are closin’ in.”

Soaking the hand towel, she wiped off the soapy bubbles in three long swipes.  She almost fell over trying to dry herself off and slip on her underwear at the same time – her old underwear.  Grimacing as her clean feeling faded, she shimmied back into her jeans and shirt.   “I’m coming, just a second!”  Raking her hair back into a ponytail, she opened the door. 

A short, attractive man with sandy blond hair stood next to the window.  Kaoru had met Hiroshi briefly the night before when he’d given them the key to this place.  “I can see that security man in the trench coat standing outside.”

“Shinomori,” Sano growled and moved over next to his friend to get a look

“No way can we make it out the front door without being seen.”  A frown wrinkled his face.

Megumi sidled up to where Kaoru was slipping on her red leather sandals and handed her a cup of tea and a toasted English muffin filled with egg and cheese.  The men were over strategizing by the window.  Between bites and gulps, Kaoru asked, “You actually had time to make all of this?” 

“What can I say?” Megumi replied with a flip of her hair as she slid on her heels.  “Anything I do, I do efficiently and well.”  Looking Kaoru up and down, the doctor let loose an exasperated sigh.  “Kaoru, you forgot to put on your disguise!”

Jogging into the kitchen, Kaoru dumped the last bit of her tea down the drain and put down the mug.  Slightly scalded lips stretched around the last bite of her breakfast sandwich.  “Fa’wy,” she mumbled through a mouth full of food.  She swallowed.  “I got distracted by Sano’s knocking.  Let me go grab them.” 

“There’s no time now,” the doctor exclaimed and dragged her to the door. 

“Come on, Ladies,” Hiroshi said as he ushered them into the brightly lit hallway.  “He’s coming up the walkway.”  Closing the door, he pointed to the right.  “The back door’s been broken for months.  Most people forget it’s even there. If we can wedge it open, we should be able to escape that way.”

Despite the fact that they were forced to flee down the rose and cream carpeted hallway, Megumi still found the breath to criticize. “Isn’t a broken door against fire code?” 

“How can you think about fire code at a time like this?” Sano complained as he ran.

When they reached the end of the hallway, Hiroshi stumbled, stunned at the sight before them.  “My door!” he exclaimed with a happy smile.  It lit up his face and revealed two enticing dimples.

Kaoru didn’t know what he’d been expecting, but apparently it was a lot less grand than what they found.  The magic must have fixed the broken-down doorway and turned it into this window lined portal flanked by majestic stone columns.    “Please visit my other places too, Sano.  Anytime, really!”  Hiroshi patted Sano jovially on the back.

The big man barely moved.  Sano just scowled at the door.  “This isn’t exactly a discrete exit anymore.”  Motioning the others to stay away from the windows, Sano sidled up and peeked around the wine-colored curtains.  “I think it’s clear.” He whispered. 

Considering they’d been rather noisy as they ran down the corridor, Kaoru didn’t know why he’d suddenly switched to quiet _now_.  _Better late than never, I guess._

Suddenly, Sano cursed and pulled his face away from the glass.  “There are two women moving up the lane.  No uniforms, but I can recognize military training from a mile away.  They have to be with Shinomori.”

Hiroshi frowned.  “Then it’s either back to the apartment or up to the roof.”

“Up,” Sano ordered, pushing Megumi towards the stairs. 

When they reached the top, Hiroshi pulled out a large ring of keys.  After rejecting several, he chose one that, as far as Kaoru could tell, looked identical to its brothers and inserted it into the lock.  The gray metal door swung open with nary a creak. _Thanks to the magic, no doubt._ Kaoru was proud to note that while Hiroshi and Megumi were panting at the exertion of the climb, she’d managed it in high-heeled sandals while barely breaking a sweat.  Sano looked to be in similarly good condition. 

The roof was bordered by a filigreed metal railing about two feet high.  Except for the looming geometry of exhaust vents and fans, the area looked to be empty.  “Now what?” Kaoru asked.

“We wait and hope they don’t find us,” Hiroshi answered.

Sano loomed over the smaller man.  “Wait?  Are you telling me you led us up here with no way to escape?”

Hiroshi laughed nervously.  “Technically, you led us up here Sano.  I just supplied the directions.”

A growl escaped Sano’s throat.  “Well I wouldn’t have chosen this option if I’d known it was a dead end!”

“Well we wouldn’t be stuck up here if you would have just done what I suggested this morning.”

“Left them with you?  You’re kidding, right?”

“With your height and that crazy hair, you stick out around here. I blend in! And there’s nothing unusual about a threesome having fun at a love hotel and needing to escape official scrutiny.  I could have gotten them out.”

Kaoru’s jaw dropped.  “Love hotel?  Threesome?!” 

Neither man answered, too caught up in their argument.

“You just wanted a chance to grope my girls.  Your plan never would have worked!” Sano practically shouted.

“Your girls?” yelped Kaoru. 

“You’re just jealous that I had a plan.  This is just like that waitress last year. You’re still smarting over the fact that women find me more attractive than you,” Hiroshi fired back.

“You got her drunk, that doesn’t count!”

“Boys!” Megumi’s irritated tone sliced through their argument.  “Please, I am drowning in testosterone here.”

Hiroshi sent her a cheeky grin.  "Well, luckily for you, you're equipped with flotation devices."

Whatever Megumi might have said next was lost as Sano tackled Hiroshi to the ground.  As the two men tumbled across the roof, Kaoru and Megumi sat down with their backs against a vent.  Eyes meeting, they both cracked up.  Maybe it was Hiroshi’s words, or the oddness of their situation, but whatever the case, both women felt better after the release of tension.

“So,” Megumi began, “once you escape the city, what will you do?”

Kaoru words trickled out slowly, “Go back home, I guess.”

“You probably won’t have to worry about unbound magic back home.  After talking to sentient buildings, arguing with mages, and dodging policemen, I’m sure it will be a relief.  Soon things will be back to normal.” Megumi said.

“Sure,” Kaoru answered hollowly.  _Said out loud like that, normal suddenly sounds so, well, bland._

Hearing Kaoru’s tone of voice, her friend sent her a sharp look.  “That is what you want, isn’t it? A life away from magic and Lord Battousai?”  Kaoru didn’t answer.  Megumi cocked her head, “Or is something else the problem?”

“He,” Kaoru hesitated as she looked into Megumi’s knowing eyes, and then away quickly.  “Lord Battousai would want me to become some grand lady.  He would want someone who could be the perfect public figure, someone gracious and refined who’d love to host big parties and parades. That’s not me.”  Kaoru picked at the fraying hem of her jeans.  “He wouldn’t want me.”

“Did he say that? About what he wants?” Anger added a snap to Megumi’s tone of voice.

Kaoru twisted the white and blue threads tightly around her index finger.  “Not exactly,” she answered softly, “but I heard two women outside my door talking that morning.  They made sense… and I’m sure they know him better than I do.”  Releasing her finger from the threads, Kaoru watched with detached fascination as blood rushed back into the whitened fingertip.

From the corner of her eye, Kaoru saw Megumi shift position to look at her profile, trying to catch her eye.  “Do they have soul bonds with him, too?”

Kaoru answered peevishly, “Of course not,” avoiding her friend’s eyes.

“Then how would they know him better than you?”  Kaoru didn’t have an answer for that.  “Does the soul bond tell you he wants you to change?  That he doesn’t want the real you?” Megumi pressed.

At her questions, the Kenshin presence in Kaoru’s mind swelled.  It had been quiet all morning, but now it burst across her mind like a warm wave. ‘ _WANT_ you _as_ you _perfect_ you _love MINE k_ oi…KOI _please_ please.’  His overlapping words ebbed and swelled like the tide; resounded through her mind like a chorus singing hymns of praise beneath a marble dome.  He sounded of velvet caresses and chocolate kisses, of scented candles and steaming hot springs.  For one perfect moment Kaoru became suspended in a spell comprised of gossamer sound and emotion.

“Kaoru?” Megumi’s voice broke her delicate trance and Kaoru looked up.  She knew her eyes were wide and vulnerable.

She didn’t want to be vulnerable, hated it in fact, but this was her best friend.  She trusted Megumi.  Kaoru’s voice wobbled as she forced herself to answer, “N-no. The bond says he wants me.  He _says_ , but what if-”

A soft finger stopped Kaoru from voicing her fears.  “Sweetheart, that man is tearing the city apart looking for you.  He kidnapped me and had me locked in Sano’s apartment just to get you alone.  I think he even roughed up his head of security when he found out you’d gotten away.  He was so upset that when you left him that the entire city shook. Trust me, he wants you.  And,” Megumi moved her finger down from Kaoru’s mouth to tap her on the chest, or more specifically, to tap her golden koi necklace.  “Considering how you keep caressing this little trinket, I think you care more than a little bit about him too.”

Kaoru tilted her chin stubbornly.  “I do not.  How could I?  We just met. I’m sure he’ll get over me soon.  He’ll probably forget about me by tomorrow and move on to some other woman.”

A skeptical look graced Megumi’s face and arched one raven brow.  “Everything I’ve heard labels him as an honorable man who doesn’t make promises lightly.   When he does, he always follows through.  Always.”  She paused a moment to let her words sink in.  “I’ve never heard his name linked seriously with another woman’s. Actually, none of the Battousai Lords have been womanizers.  The only woman I can even think of that’s been linked to that house is the Lady Tomoe, wife of the very first Lord Battousai.”  A frown wrinkled her brow.  “Which makes you wonder where the children for each new generation came from, since gossip is usually pretty reliable in this town… but then again that family has always been shrouded in secrets.” 

Kaoru mumbled something under her breath, but her words were too soft to hear over the sound of the men’s wrestling getting closer.

Megumi snapped at them, “Keep it down.  We’re hiding up here, remember?” Then she turned back to Kaoru. “Now, say that again?”

“He is the first.”  Seeing Megumi’s incomprehension, Kaoru expanded.  “Kenshin, he is the first Lord Battousai.”

Surprise had the doctor opening and closing her mouth several times before finally deciding on something to say.  “Well, he’s certainly the sexiest old man I’ve ever met.  Think he’d share his beauty secrets?”

“Megumi!” Kaoru growled at her smirking friend.

“It also makes me wonder how long it’s been since he’s relieved all of that... pent up passion.  Would you say he’s lost his touch?” A strangled sound escaped Kaoru’s throat. “Do you think he needs a tutor to refresh his knowledge of the basics?  Free of charge, of course,” Megumi purred.

Only long association with Kaoru allowed Megumi to dodge her enraged charge and flailing fists.  Quickly backing up, the doctor held out her hands soothingly.  “Now calm down. I’m already married, remember?  No need to worry.” Kaoru’s expression still simmered with incensed jealousy. The foxy doctor sat back down saucily and sent her a coy smile. “And I think that little demonstration proves that you do care.” 

Glaring, Kaoru plopped down next to Megumi in grudging acknowledgement of her claim.   Megumi smiled and continued her argument.  “Your Kenshin is the premier magic user in this city, probably the entire country.  If you’ve gotten that much information out of your bond with your limited knowledge of magic, just imagine all the things he knows from your side.  After forty-eight hours, he can probably recite the age, species, and eulogy for every pet you’ve ever owned.  I’m sure he knows you quite well by now.”

Kaoru gasped.  She hadn’t even thought of that.  “That- that’s an invasion of my privacy!  How dare he!”

“As if you haven’t been doing the same thing, just less expertly,” Megumi chuckled at the sour look on her friend’s face, but soon sobered. “What _do_ you want, Kaoru?  Do you want to go home, back to a life without all this crazy magic... or do you want to stay?  Stay here in the city with me and Sano… and your Kenshin?”

A soft breeze tugged wisps of hair free from Kaoru’s braid, tickling them across her cheeks. Staring off into the distance, Kaoru nibbled thoughtfully on her lower lip. “I want,” her wavering voice leveled out and became stronger.  “I want,” her steely gaze locked onto Megumi’s face.  “I want to stay.” Kaoru smiled.  “I want to knock that man over the head with my shinai, sit on his stomach, and force him to make the buildings stop trying to swallow me.  Then I’d,” a blush stole over Kaoru’s cheeks and she coughed into her hand.  Slanting a glance at Megumi she finished primly, “I’d give him a piece of my mind.”

“I’m sure you’d like to give him a piece of something,” her friend alleged slyly.  Dodging Kaoru’s retaliatory swat, Megumi stood up and dusted off the seat of her pants.  “Well, what are we going to do about it?” she asked.

Standing up, Kaoru squinted into the sun as she looked off in the direction of Kenshin’s mansion in the center of the city.  “ _I_ am going to go back.  You are going to keep Shinomori off my trail long enough for me to do this my way.”  She stated firmly, clenching her hands at her sides.  “First I’m going to punish Kenshin.  Then we are going to talk, and if I don’t like his answers, I’m out of here for good.”

“And if you do like his answers?” Megumi asked with a half-smile.

“If I do,” Kaoru took a deep, fortifying breath, “then you’ll be my bridesmaid at the wedding.”  Her features subtly tightened, “Our small, private wedding.” 

The doorknob suddenly turned and rattled. It was locked, but someone didn’t seem to care.  The door shook a few times as if someone was trying to force it, and then there was silence. Sano jumped up off of Hiroshi and braced his back against the door.  Leaning an ear against it, he listened intently.  Then he looked up and mouthed, ‘Picking the lock.’

Placing her hands on her hips, Kaoru scowled.  “I am not an animal to be hunted and trapped.  It is time Lord Battousai and his minions realize that.”  Marching to the edge of the building, Kaoru put one scarlet leather sandal up on the railing and leapt over the side.

“Kaoru!” Megumi shrieked and ran to the place where her best friend had just jumped off.  Heart in her throat, she looked over the edge.  Then she collapsed onto her knees.

A thin metal walkway now arched across to the neighboring building.  Kaoru was already a third of the way across.  She had scared Megumi to death, but she was fine.

“Jou-chan?” Sano asked hesitantly. 

“She’s fine.  There’s a bridge.  Just keep that door shut!”  Megumi told her husband breathlessly.  Hiroshi joined him in bracing the door.

As Kaoru made her way slowly but steadily across the metal beam, everything was fine.  She just pretended that she was walking along a three foot tall wall instead of a thin piece of metal suspended over fifty feet up in the air.  Then her heel landed on a seam and her ankle rolled. 

Distantly she heard Megumi gasp in horror, but she was too busy straddling the beam, pale faced and white-knuckled, trying not to fall off or faint.  She felt lightheaded.  ‘ _BREATHE!’_ ordered the Kenshin voice in her mind with startling clarity.  Forcing her body to take a deep breath, she tried to focus on her chipped nails instead of the ground so far below. 

“Okay, Kaoru, you can do this,” she whispered encouragingly to herself.  “You made this bridge and you are going to successfully escape.”  Relaxing her fingers, she carefully stood back up and locked her ankles. “By the end of the day, you are going to punish the bad guy and kiss the hero, who is the same person.  But that’s okay.”  Taking a small, shuffling step, she kept up her monologue.  “Plus, you’re wearing scarlet leather.  That’s powerful and sexy, which means your feet are too powerful and sexy to slip again on this beam.” 

From the corner of her eye, she noticed the other building getting closer.  “This is just like walking across the railing of a fence back home.  Just like a railing….” Kaoru stopped and forcibly resisted the urge to slap herself on the forehead.  _Did I or did I not make this bridge?_   _The devil’s in the details._  

“I’d like a railing on my bridge, please,” she asked the magic nicely.  Manners never hurt anyone, and the past couple of days had taught her not to underestimate the attitude and touchiness of supposedly non-sentient edifices.  Since this neighborhood was filled with puppy magic, she probably didn’t have to worry too much. But better to start out as you intended to continue. Kaoru felt a tingling thrum of fur and sunlight, and suddenly her body was bracketed by two smooth metal railings. 

Smiling, she confidently walked the last four feet to the roof of the next building.  As soon as she stepped off, the bridge and its railings winked out of existence.  Now that she’d figured out a safer method of transportation, she made good time to the edge of the district.  When she got far enough away that she didn’t see any policemen or suspicious figures below, she formed a ladder to take her to the ground.

Stepping down lightly into an alley, Kaoru dusted her hands off and watched the last evidence of her escape route dissipate.  “Alright, sexy shoes,” she announced.  “Time to strut your stuff!”  Heels clicking on the asphalt, she made a beeline for the street and the Battousai mansion a few miles away.

 

* * *

 

Acknowledging the bows and salutes as he entered his mansion, Kenshin masked his weariness with a confident and seemingly tireless stride.  No one needed to know how close to collapse he truly was, or how low his magical reserves had gotten.  A touch to a wooden support pillar confirmed that none of the security spells had been triggered while he’d been gone.  Thus assured, he continued towards his bed.

Rounding the corner, he saw Misao sitting next to his door.  He was pleased to see that she looked none the worse for wear after their confrontation two nights ago.  A large, bright pink bubble was growing out of her mouth.  When it reached roughly the size of her head, it popped.  Peeling the strands off her nose and cheeks, she plopped them back into her mouth and continued to chew. Purposely scuffing his foot against the floor, Kenshin caught her attention.  The ninja, secretary, and sometimes tour guide jumped to her feet.

“Lord Battousai, welcome home,” she chirped cheerfully with a slight blush.  Her smile dimmed slightly as she looked him over, perhaps because he was alone or perhaps because of the bruised look in his eyes.

“Do you have important news, Makimachi-san, or can this business wait?” Kenshin asked.  His limbs felt leaden with exhaustion.  If there’d been another crisis, he worried whether he’d be up to it.  Yet duty was duty.

“No emergencies, my lord.  Just a few updates,” she explained apologetically.  Kenshin sighed in relief.  “Saitou-san returned from the council meeting.  I can schedule his final debriefing either tonight or tomorrow.  Aoshi-sama also reports that several captures were made just a few minutes ago.”

Kenshin grabbed her arm as he hopefully demanded, “Kaoru?”

The ninja girl looked down at his hold and swallowed.  “I’m sorry, she’s still missing.”  Kenshin carefully released her arm and composed his expression.  “But our forces captured her companions Takani Megumi and Sagara Sanosuke.  From what we can discover, she escaped right before Aoshi-sama cornered them on a roof.  Kamiya-san must have used magic to somehow escape, my lord.” 

Kenshin could feel his shoulders trying to slump as her explanation drew on. Drawing on the last of his reserves of energy, he straightened his posture and nonchalantly crossed his arms. As Misao delivered a few more bits of information about other problems currently under investigation, he found his mind blanking.  Nevertheless, he made sure that part of his mind recorded her words for playback later. 

Right now, he didn’t have the power to pay attention.  Having his hopes raised so suddenly, only to be plummeted right back down into the dark abyss, had overtaxed his weary body and mind.  In his weary state, he broodingly wondered if pigs would fly before he had Kaoru back in his arms again.  Then again, he was a magician wasn’t he?  Kenshin had never tried to give a pig wings before, but maybe a flotation spell…?

Looking up, he realized Misao had stopped talking and was waiting for further instruction. Shaking his head loose of silly plans, he tried to remember what he needed to say.  _I need sleep_.  “Thank you Makimachi-san.  I’ll be resting in my quarters.  Wake me if there’s any more news.” Kenshin made sure to keep his shoulders straight and his stride firm as he walked into his room and closed the door.   

Only when he reached the sanctuary of his private rooms did he allow his chin to drop and his steps to drag.  Although his vision was blurring, Kenshin took the time to retrieve Kaoru’s cross embroidered sock from his pocket, fold it carefully, and set it on his nightstand.  Her pair of sneakers rested next to it on the floor.  These small mementos were the physical remnants of her flight from him.  _I will return them to her… personally._

Pulling his shirt over his head, Kenshin wondered if she’d kept his present.  Was it too much to hope for that she wore it despite her flight?  Stripping down, Kenshin folded his dirty clothes and placed them in a hamper.  Then he crawled wearily into his cool silken sheets and gave himself permission to dream, just a little. 

In his mind he imagined Kaoru standing in his garden, highlighted by the sunbeams bouncing off his reflecting pool. She looked beautiful. At his approach, she turned with a delighted smile and stretched out her hands in welcome.  The sunlight streaming through her clothes emphasized the soft curves of her body. As he grasped her fingers and drew her pliant body against his chest, her honeyed lips met his in a loving kiss. 

When they finally parted for air, she leaned back in his arms and smiled dreamily up into the creamy blue sky.  With her head tilted back like that, he couldn’t help but drop a few kisses along the column of her irresistible throat.  Kaoru’s skin was soft against his lips. Nuzzling against her collarbone, he rocked her back and forth slowly.  From the corner of his eye he could see flashes of sunlight winking off of the golden chain of the koi necklace he’d given her when they’d first met.  Burrowing his hands into her hair, he cuddled her close to his body and breathed in her warmth.

If anyone had been watching Lord Battousai sleep, they would have seen nothing more than an exhausted man.  Even in sleep the lines of strain on his face and the purple rings under his eyes were obvious.  In his arms he gently cuddled a pillow to his chest.  His long-fingered hands, known for wielding the deadliest of swords and spells, delicately cradled a handful of silken sheets.

 

* * *

 

            Waiting at a street corner for the walk light to turn green, Kaoru scrunched her blistered toes carefully.  She’d been walking for several hours on borrowed shoes and her feet hurt.  _The only reason I’m still wearing these sandals is because I know it’ll hurt more to be kicked with them than without._

While walking through the city, she had been careful to avoid anything that might ruin her plan of confronting Kenshin through her own impetus.  That required running away from policemen and not getting too close to any magical buildings.  She’d done a lot of walking in street gutters instead of sidewalks today.  But it had been worth it. The Battousai mansion stood less than a block away. 

Finally crossing the street, Kaoru was brought to a halt by a large wooden barricade stretched across the sidewalk and street.  _I hate construction!_   All of the workers seemed to be taking an early lunch break on the other side of the road.  Otherwise it seemed deserted. 

Examining the scene, Kaoru noticed a long flight of granite stairs fronting a grandiose building.  The sign declared it to be a bank.  If she stepped up onto the stairs, she could get around the construction.  Otherwise, she’d have to detour around the entire square and hope that the way wasn’t blocked there too.  Her problem lay in the fact that the stairs were closer to the magical bank building than she’d previously been willing to go.  Yet she was sick of waiting.  Kaoru just wanted this done.

Giving herself a quick pep talk, Kaoru stepped up onto the stairs.  Nothing happened.  Releasing a relieved sigh, she took one more step and promptly started to sink.  Before she even had time to shriek, she’d been sucked all the way down to her chest.  Stretching out her arms, Kaoru managed to grab two handfuls of the grassy lawn edging the stone stairway.  Despite pulling with all of her might, she only managed to slow her rate of sinking, not stop it.  Kaoru tried to utilize the magical part of her mind that had been getting louder and louder the past two days, but still nothing seemed to happen.

Mind racing, Kaoru finally shouted “KOI,” while simultaneously pushing with her magic at the area directly under her feet.  Maybe when Kenshin said ‘koi’ he meant to evoke the idea of love and passion, to order her to come, or even to call her a fish.  But Kaoru had remembered another meaning of _koi_ : to be thick and dense. 

Looking down at the granite steps that were quickly devouring her body, Kaoru screamed it again, “koi!” That word resonated with the surrounding architecture as nothing else she’d done, causing the sludge beneath her feet to firm.  _After all, it is a word of power in the struggle between Kenshin and me._   _If I have to acknowledge it, the rest of the world, of his world, better fall in line too._

Grasping more firmly at the handfuls of greenish-yellow grass, she painfully pulled herself out of the liquid stone. With a last wiggle, she flopped onto her back spread-eagled on the grassy verge.  As her clothing became saturated with clammy water, Kaoru realized that the lawn must have been recently watered.  She was too relieved to care. _I made it._   Pushing herself up on her elbows, she rolled over onto her hands and knees.

From the direction of the stairs she heard a mocking voice, “I’m impressed you actually got out of that trap, though it could have been done a lot more gracefully. Still, it just goes to show that our fearless leader isn’t infallible.” 

Looking up in surprise, Kaoru saw a tall, thin man with saturnine features and eyes of burnished brass.  His dark hair was slicked back except for a few spiky strands falling over his eyes. “Pigs like to wallow in the mud too.  What does that make you, I wonder?”  His almost pleasant tone contrasted sharply with the cruel glint in his brassy eyes.

“I was trying to get up!” Kaoru spat out as she carefully stood.  The muddy water had soaked through her pants and shirt.  Clumps of hair clung uncomfortably to her neck.  She looked horrible and she knew it. 

What was it with men and pig metaphors lately?  First Sano and now this jerk.  Right then and there Kaoru suspected that she might come to hate the tall man mocking her. 

“So you’re Battousai’s woman, eh?  The little tanuki who escaped?”  His cold eyes looked her up and down critically. “I get back into town and find you just a few minutes later.  I can’t believe you managed to elude them for this long. Obviously you aren’t that smart, so they really must have gotten even more stupid while I was gone.” 

Kaoru’s answer was pithy and offensive.  Yet the man didn’t even bat an eye.  Pulling out a cigarette, he lit it using a spark of magic from his gloved finger.  Then he took a long drag. He seemed more bored than insulted by her words. 

_Suspicion confirmed: I hate his guts!_   Yet she couldn’t attack.  The jerk was standing up on the steps where she couldn’t go, the cheater. 

Although pissed off, Kaoru still was still upset over almost being eaten by the buildings again.  It had rapidly become one of her least favorite things.  Although she’d used magic to escape the last time, she still didn’t know exactly why it had worked.  Until she was absolutely certain she could repeat the spell, she didn’t want to tempt fate.  Unfortunately, that meant no bull rushing the prick and grinding his smirking face into the granite stairs.

As if he sensed her frustration at being thwarted, he took a step down until he was just barely out of reach.  His smirk dared her to try it.  Kaoru felt steam coming out of her ears, but she restrained herself.  As the lighting of his cigarette proved, he knew magic.  For all she knew he could have set a new magical trap or strengthened the old one.  She wouldn’t put anything past him.

“And just where do you think you’re going, little pig?” he drawled when she failed to take up his challenge.

“To kick Lord Battousai’s head in.  You got a problem with that?” Kaoru snapped back.  A second after speaking, she mentally slapped herself.  She should have lied. How would he react to her threatening his master and lord? Raising her fists, she braced herself for his negative response. 

Thus his laughter caught her completely off guard. “Not at all,” he answered. “Go right ahead.  I get paid to handle his external affairs.  When in the city, I don’t have to deal with internal matters like his personal security.”  He exhaled a puff of smoke.  It drifted across her flabbergasted face and irritated her throat, forcing her to cough. 

“However,” his light tone turned cold, “my orders are to bring you in and immediately notify Lord Battousai.” He dropped his cigarette and crushed it beneath his heel. 

Kaoru noticed again how menacing his face looked.  The morning sunlight emphasized the sharpness of his cheekbones and the cruelty of his thin lips. Trapped by his gaze, she felt like a mouse confronted by a snake. Although she wanted to take a step back, her legs felt frozen.

The moment dragged on indeterminably until he finally broke the silence. “But,” he released her eyes and pulled out another cigarette, “since you are intent on going back on your own, why should I inconvenience myself?” 

Confused, Kaoru waited for the other shoe to drop.  _It can’t be that easy to escape him_.  _Nothing has been easy the past few days._

“You really are stupid, aren’t you?” he sighed, ignoring her angry growl.  “At least the ugly ones are usually the strongest.  I’d suggest breaking a kneecap first before you really set in to beating that self-righteous twit.”  Kaoru’s mouth dropped open in outrage. 

“You bastard, don’t you work for him? Just who do you think you are?” 

“Saitou Hajime, minister of external security and affairs.” Another evil smirk quirked his thin lips as he said, “Just make sure to leave one of his hands unbroken so he can still sign my paycheck.”  Flicking his cigarette into the puddle with a hiss, he turned to leave.  “And if you’re lying to me about going back,” he stopped and turned back to skewer her with a glare, “I’ll hunt you down and break your kneecaps instead.” 

Swallowing uneasily, Kaoru tried to hide her fear in a show of bravado.  “Don’t make me laugh.  Obviously I am going back right now.” She flicked her wet hair behind her shoulder nonchalantly.  “Lord Battousai is there, isn’t he?”

“Probably not,” Saitou said unhelpfully.

Kaoru wet her lips hesitantly.  She wasn’t sure how she felt about that. “Are you going to go and get him?”

“I’m not a messenger.  Let him run around the city for a while longer suffering.  He’ll have to return eventually.” Saitou put his hands in his pockets, shrugged his shoulders, and said, “You can wait.”

Huffing out an annoyed breath at his answer, Kaoru pushed her bangs out of her eyes.  “Whatever.  I’ll be there just as soon as I get around this roadblock without the buildings swallowing me.”  Kaoru tried to turn around gracefully, but slipped on the slick grass and fell back down onto her hands and knees with a splat.  Mud splashed up onto her face.  She spit out the grit and tried not to curse. 

Mocking laughter followed her clumsiness. Wiping her cheek off onto her damp shoulder, Kaoru’s temper ratcheted up.  She didn’t care if the building started to swallow her again, she just wanted to pop this guy’s head off and use it as a soccer ball.   

Before she could launch herself up, she found her arms and legs dangling in the air.  In a movement too fast to follow, Saitou had picked her up by the waistband of her muddy pants.  Stepping back up onto the granite stairs, he quickly carried her over to the other side of the street like a bedraggled kitten.  She could feel the seams of her pants hissing in protest and starting to rip.  At least he was wearing gloves so she didn’t have to deal with his bare fingers brushing against the top of her butt. But still, _how dare he!_   Kaoru shrieked and struggled. She didn’t know what he was doing; she just knew that anything having to do with this man had to be bad. 

“Shut up or I’ll shut you up. Permanently,” he threatened, bouncing her body with a violent jolt.  It ripped out one of the seams on her pants.  The shaking also caused her hair to flip over her face and cover her eyes.  She couldn’t see anything.

Opening her mouth to deliver another enraged bellow, she was forced to stop and spit out a lock of muddy hair. Without warning, Saitou dropped her facedown onto the pavement. “Ouch!” Angrily Kaoru pushed her bruised body to its feet, only to see him already halfway down the block sauntering away.  Dusting her begrimed hands off as best she could on her mud soaked clothing, she turned to find herself nose to knocker with the Battousai estate’s back gate.

  


	8. Boxers or Briefs

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Dictionary:  
> Koi – Depending on the kanji used it can mean: (adj) thick, dense, strong; carp – a fish found in ornamental ponds; (n) love, tender passion (adj. usage would usually be koishii); (and a bunch of other things that aren't used here… yet.)  
> Kero – AKA ribbit. This is how frogs croak in Japanese.  
> Budou – Martial arts, military arts, bushido.

 

Earth crunched beneath the polished boots of the sentry patrolling the Battousai estate. From her position hiding beneath the prickly branches of a bluish-green shrub, Kaoru tried quietly to scrunch smaller. Something was poking against her cheek. Even her scrunching hadn't dislodged it. Grimacing, she focused on the guard and tried to ignore the discomfort. She feared that if she moved again, he'd notice her.

As far as Kaoru knew, her break-in was still undetected. Nevertheless, the guard seemed to be moving very slowly as he scanned the grounds. When he stood only a few yards away, Kaoru's nose began to itch. She felt a sneeze coming on.

Suddenly the guard stopped and crouched down to tie his shoe. All he had to do was turn his head thirty degrees and he'd see her! Kaoru dug her fingers into the gritty dirt and held her breath. She hoped it would stop the tickling in her throat. Of course, not breathing brought her mind back to the feeling of having her cheek practically impaled by the evil shrubbery.

For some reason, the guard seemed to be having trouble fashioning his laces into a bow. Brow scrunched, he made one loop, sighed, made another loop, and then dropped both laces and started over.  _Just buy slip-ons next time!_  Kaoru shouted in her head.

If she didn't take a breath soon, she was going to pass out. At least she wouldn't feel her throbbing cheek anymore. Some higher being must have taken pity on her plight, because the guard finally finished with his shoe. Standing up, he scratched his back lazily.  _Just go away already!_  Black spots began appearing at the edge of Kaoru's vision. Finally the guard began moving away.

As soon as he turned the corner, Kaoru violently inhaled and flopped away from the sword-like branch. Her eyes closed in relief. It took a minute to get her breathing and heartbeat back to normal. Rubbing her tender cheek, she braced her nerves and opened her eyes.

After confirming that the courtyard looked momentarily deserted, Kaoru rolled out from underneath the bush. A sprint took her to an unobtrusive side door. With a whispered, " _Please_  don't be locked," she tried the handle. It turned easily beneath her fingers. Slipping into the darkened hallway, she silently closed the door behind her back.

Dusting off the front of her clothes, Kaoru tried to make her way towards the hidden garden. It seemed the most neutral place for their confrontation, or at least a better choice than his weapons room or bedchamber. After all, she wasn't here to kill him  _or_  sleep with him.

_Be honest, at this moment you're not sure which you'd like to do more… punishment or pleasure, vindication or surrender…._ Kaoru groaned and ignored the heat flooding her cheeks.  _Shut up! We're going to the garden and that's final!_ Hearing nothing more from her subconscious, she strode decisively down the corridor.

After a few wrong turns and dead ends, Kaoru realized that she was hopelessly lost. The first time she'd been here, she'd traveled through secret paths to both find and escape the garden. The only hallways she'd openly traveled were with the tour group at the front of the house. Nothing she'd seen so far looked familiar.  _Why does he have to live in such a big house? Just to annoy me, I bet!_

Exasperated, Kaoru blew the bangs out of her face. Placing one hand on the wall, she closed her eyes. "Where is the garden?" she asked the magical house angrily. Nothing answered. Opening her eyes, she bit her lip in frustration.  _Stupid magic never works when you need it. That's probably his fault too._

Trying to calm her turbulent emotions, she exhaled all of her breath slowly. It took three repetitions of a meditation exercise before she finally felt centered. At her level of budou she really should have been successful after one, but these were unusual times.

Then she asked the house for help again. But with her mind centered and peaceful, her voice came out in a tone full of ritual cadence. "Where is the garden with the newborn fountain at its core? The secret garden with a fountain full of liquid, cool and clear, that smells of sunlight?"

Fully extending her magic muscles,  _I really hope those don't get strained,_  Kaoru finally heard something.  _"Kero kero."_  It was the croak of a frog. Not quite believing her ears, she focused again. " _Kero kero,_ " echoed again from the right-hand passage. Kaoru memorized the sensation of whatever it was her magic was doing. Just in case, she waited a few more seconds for another sign.

When nothing else happened, Kaoru opened her eyes, kept her magical muscles taunt, and walked toward the sound. After all, she didn't have anything else to go on.  _Thump-thud_  echoed around the next corner.

Kaoru supposed that it could be the sound of a leaping amphibian. The reverberation had a certain heft that just didn't fit a mouse.  _Because of course those are the only two options._ Kaoru rolled her eyes at her own absurdity.  _And how do you know your amphibian isn't a toad or a mud puppy instead of a frog? Do you even know what sound a mud puppy makes?_ Thumping herself on the side of the head, Kaoru ordered herself to focus.

Three turns later, she found herself at another dead end. Yet this time, she could hear " _kero kero"_  emanating from inside the wall. "If I were a secret passage, where would my latch be?" Kaoru mumbled to herself. After examining the hallway, she finally decided that it had to be hidden in the intricately carved forest scene edging the ceiling.

While being short was wonderful for hiding under bushes, it made reaching a hypothetical latch at the top of wall rather difficult. The only way she could get to the molding was by going up on tiptoe, stretching her hand as high as it could go, and plastering her cheek and chest against the wall to maintain balance. In her strained position, she found it difficult to draw a full breath.

Pressing and pulling on the carved wood blindly, Kaoru finally heard a muffled  _click_. The wall swung open silently. As her support disappeared, she found herself falling forward. Banging her elbow on the corner, she grabbed wildly at the wall, finally jerking to a stop with her body at a sixty degree angle in relation to the floor. Kaoru righted her body carefully.

Looking back up to where she'd found the latch, Kaoru saw that the wood was carved into the shape of a leaping frog.  _Should have looked for that in the first place instead of doing it the hard way._   _Ah well._

Inside the hidden passageway, Kaoru felt much more confident. Although the frog sounds had disappeared, she didn't doubt which way to go. It felt warmer to the left. After a few minutes of jogging down dust-free corridors, she suddenly felt cold. Backtracking until the heat reappeared, she searched for and easily found a latch. Her breathing accelerated.

Opening the door, Kaoru boldly stepped onto the secret garden's veranda. Standing with her hands fisted at her sides and her shoulders thrust back, her eyes briskly swept the quiet sanctuary. She was ready for a fight.

The garden was empty.

Narrowed blue eyes searched again. "He isn't here? I can't believe it!"Kaoru growled under her breath and ran her hand over her face. "What a let down."

Although she'd been walking all morning, Kaoru couldn't relax. She was too keyed up about the coming confrontation to sit still. Circling the garden, she tried to figure out where Kenshin might be.  _I guess Saitou was right and Kenshin_ is _still out searching the city._

When her energy finally began winding down, Kaoru shuffled over to the fountain and flopped down. As her eyes traced the carvings and followed the movement of sunlit currents, her tense muscles gradually relaxed. The water burbled into the basin and flowed down through the garden in glitters of silver rope. It was just as she remembered it. As before, the script above the dancing figures carved into the rim proved to be indecipherable.

Going up on one knee to see better, Kaoru winced. Gently pulling up the fabric of her pants, she discovered why. Black, brown, and violet bruises painted her legs like a prairie hen's camouflage. It had to be from when Saitou had dropped her onto the pavement so suddenly.

Sure he'd helped her get around the steps without being swallowed, but that didn't absolve his nastiness. Kaoru bared her teeth at the marks.  _Someday, Saitou Hajime, I will pay you back!_

The angry fisting of her hands brought her attention to the matching bruises around her wrist. There was no mistaking the fact that they came from fingers. Remembering her resolution to hide them from Kenshin, her anger collapsed under the weight of the confused emotions evoked by his name.

From inside her mind she gradually came to hear a sound like the harmonizing of chimes and falling rocks. Concentrating, she finally made out a voice within the percussion. It was Kenshin's soul, trying to speak to her again. Kaoru wished that she could understand and communicate with it more easily. ' _Sorry_ sorry _forgive_ Please _drink_ drink _fountain_ Heal _pull please_ heal _drink_ drink the water  _pulledHurt_  heal _your bruises_ Hurt _scratches_ painbad _badsorry_ sorry _Drinkpulled_ Bad _sorry.'_

"You want me to pull something from the fountain?" Kaoru asked the voice. Yet the only response she could make out was more chimes and falling rocks. An ache formed between her eyes, yet his voice didn't resurface from the beats. Leaning over the fountain, Kaoru swished her hands around in the water, but couldn't find anything to grasp onto, much less pull.

Going over his words again, she managed to pick out the phrase, ' _drink the water_.' Remembering how her tongue had been healed the last time she'd tasted water from the fountain, Kaoru cupped a handful of water and sipped. That sunlight scent surrounded her again. Without realizing it, she'd closed her eyes. Opening them again, she noticed that her palm was dry and the painful aches had almost completely disappeared.

Holding her wrist up to the light, she whispered, "Thank you," to the fountain and the voice inside her head. Only a few yellow-brown streaks remained, as if the bruises had aged the space of days in the time it took to take that one drink. The scratches on her palms had faded from bloody scabs to bright pink lines. It still felt tender, but no longer gave off a stab of pain when accidentally rubbed against a hard surface. Running her hands along the molding earlier had forced her to bite her tongue more than once.

As she opened and closed her hands, she couldn't help but smile. Magic was wonderful… wonderful and confusing. Her smile faded. Megumi was right - Kaoru was a novice at this magic stuff. She had no idea what she was doing.

Kenshin and her soul were probably sitting down in his mind having tea together while discussing the state of the economy and the upcoming pro-wrestling special on TV. Yet half the time Kaoru could barely even find his soul in her mind, much less understand what he was trying to say. She was lucky if she could make out one sentence in ten after filtering them through the static of her own ignorance and confusion.

_Communication between the sexes is hard enough without trying to get fancy with magic and soul bonds that,_  she reminded herself to point out later,  _seem rather glitchy._   _Maybe Kenshin didn't do it right? After all, he is a man. I just bet he didn't read the instructions first._

Kaoru traced a frown onto a rock with her wet finger.  _Just because he understands magical bond-speak, he probably assumes everyone can._   _What's wrong with face-to-face communication?_

Standing up, she gazed down into the pool. The angle of the morning sun turned the wavering surface into a mirror. It reflected her body and the clouds behind her in the sky. The clouds were fluffy and bright. Kaoru was not.

Melancholy thoughts had drawn her face with unhappy lines. These soon morphed into shock, however, when Kaoru noticed the state of her body. She hadn't really thought about how many times she'd been down on the ground today. Now she realized that she should have.

Mud streaked her clothing and face in uneven swaths. Clumps of hair and grass stood out around her head as if she'd just woken up from sleeping in a swamp. Because of the wet cloth and ripped seams, her pants hung oddly on her waist. If she didn't know better, she'd think the picture belonged to an escapee from an insane asylum. One who'd gotten hit by an ugly truck on the way out.

A gust of wind rippled through the clearing and cut through her wet clothing, making her shiver. Hearing the rustling of the leaves, she felt a moment of sheer panic when she at first mistook the sound for Kenshin. No way was she letting him see her like this.  _No way_.

Exiting the garden at a jog, Kaoru decided to search the nearby rooms for a shower. Since it was around eleven o'clock in the morning, she counted on no one being in their quarters. Any occupants should be away at work.  _Unless someone decided to sleep in._

Luckily most of the rooms in this section seemed abandoned. After about fifteen minutes of scrounging, Kaoru finally stopped when she found a bathroom with a towel. Dropping her booty onto the counter, a sliver of soap and a quarter-full bottle of shampoo, she locked the door.

Shucking her filthy clothing, she turned on the faucet. It whined and shook a bit in protest. For the first minute or so, most of the water going down the drain looked old and brown. She assumed that the magic had been weak for so long that the maintenance spells still hadn't completely recovered.  _Unfortunately for me._

Kaoru looked over and noticed that the towel hanging on the rack was dusty.  _This room must have gone unused for a while if even the human butlers have neglected to clean the linens._ Picking up the towel, she shook it sharply to remove the dust. The fabric on the opposite side looked clean at least.

When the water finally flowed clear, Kaoru turned on the shower and stepped under the spray. The water swirling down the drain turned brown again, but this time from the grime washing off of her body. Hoping that the sliver of soap wouldn't disappear before the job was done, Kaoru started to scrub.

About forty minutes later, she reached out wrinkled fingers to turn off the warm water. Then she bent over and wrung out her long black hair.  _I wonder of the water stayed heated so long because of magic or because of a mechanical water heater?_  Deciding that it didn't really matter, Kaoru reached out for the towel and dried off her now pristine body.

Standing clean and refreshed in the steamy room, she hummed happily to herself. Then she looked over at her damp and dirty clothing, took a step back, and shuddered.  _I refuse to put those disgusting clothes back on._ "But I can't just prance around in a towel that barely covers my butt. What else am I going to wear?" she asked the empty room in frustration. Before her mouth had even finished forming the question, Kaoru felt something approaching.

Clad only in a clinging towel and dripping hair, she wondered if it could be Kenshin. She expected anger or fear at the thought, but instead felt a warm anticipation that had little to do with telling him off. Her stomach fluttered.

As the energy came closer, it finally resolved itself into a familiar presence. Her fingers clutching at the edge of the towel spasmed, and then relaxed. The presence wasn't Kenshin. Smoothing her hand down her stomach in an attempt to settle it –  _must be indigestion -_  she waited for her visitor.

The mansion held many different magical spirits. Some were like fastidious butlers who did their best to ignore her, while others were quiet, unobtrusive mice. Then there were the massive guard dog spells fiercely loyal to their master.

Luckily, Kaoru had somehow won over one of the guard dog spells her first time in the garden. Somehow she knew that it had been the one helping her out by forming hallways and doors for her to escape the last two times she'd been here. That spell dog had also kept most of the other protection spells from bothering her. She recognized it in the energy approaching.

Calling the spell dog over, she took a moment to shower it with metaphysical love. Kaoru wasn't sure how she managed it, but the magic inside her responded to her wishes and allowed her to 'pet' the dog, running magical tendrils across its spell and smoothing the energy that comprised its form.

After an indeterminable amount of time, Kaoru felt a pop, as if her ears had just adjusted to a change in altitude. Startled, she realized that the spell dog was no longer only on the magical plane. She could see him with her eyes. His transparent body floated in front of her: a gigantic brown mastiff with a crooked front tooth. The dog gazed down at her with warm gray eyes. Megumi would probably call it an ugly behemoth, snaggletoothed and drooling, but Kaoru was in love.

"Do you have a name, big guy?" she asked adoringly. He floated down until it seemed like he was standing on the floor. The top of his head came up to her chest. A whispered word and her hands began to glow with a soft blue light. The light allowed her to once again scratch him lovingly behind the ears. Pushing his head into her hands, the mastiff began thumping his hind leg against the ground in pleasure. Of course, the transparent leg wasn't really corporeal. It passed straight through the floor without a sound, but Kaoru got the point. She scratched harder.

"If you're going to keep visiting me, I guess I'll have to give you a name. How about… Nori! If I'm a koi in this place, you can be my seaweed! Seaweed is very versatile stuff, you know. It can be a home and protection for little fish and seahorses. Plus it's a tasty treat." He looked down at her with drooping ears and stopped thumping his foot. Her fingers stopped scratching when she saw what a pitiful picture he made. "I didn't mean to imply that  _you'd_  be a tasty treat."

His large, liquid gray eyes reminded her of a fog-shrouded ocean. He lay down so his snaggletooth poked out forlornly where his head rested on top of his front legs. It made for a very sad and pathetic picture. Obviously, he didn't like being compared to an edible plant, no matter what its wonderful side properties.

"Oh fine, we'll go with something else. Don't pout." Tilting her head, Kaoru tried to get a better sense of his personality. "You could be Orion, the hunter. It's my favorite constellation, but," looking at the large dog's dejected pose, she shook her head. "But you don't seem like an Orion. Hmm, maybe Gibbous, the waxing moon?" He snorted and looked away. "I'm not implying that you're fat. I can tell that it's all muscle." Kaoru soothed.  _Who knew magical dog-shaped spells were so sensitive and picky?_

"Okay, you probably want a tougher name, right? Well, what are my favorite things? Maybe one of them will sound tough," she mused out loud. "I like stargazing, pro-wrestling, kendo and swords, lilacs in the spring, and-" the spell dog interrupted her narration when it bounded up to its feet happily. "You want to be named Sword? That's a good fierce name." The mastiff gave her a doggie grin, tongue lolling, and turned its transparent fur from brown to lilac in reply.

Surprised, Kaoru asked, "Lilac? You seriously want to be named Lilac?" When her transparent spell dog barked, she couldn't hear it with her ears. Instead, a scented wind promptly blew across her face. It smelled like lilac blossoms. Kaoru laughed. "Then Lilac it is."

Giving another lilac-infused bark, he planted a slobbery kiss on her cheek and bounded away. Kaoru refused to wonder how a magical dog could leave slobber. Or why it would want to be called Lilac. Instead, she merely wiped her cheek off with a corner of the towel and started searching the room again. She was getting tired of wearing only a towel. It was getting drafty.

Ransacking the cabinets, she hoped to discover someone's spare clothes. Unfortunately, they only seemed to hold extra toilet paper and cleaning supplies. The only exceptions to this rule were the drawers that were completely empty.

Sitting down dejectedly on the closed toilet lid, Kaoru sighed. She really REALLY did not want to put those clothes back on. Slowly she finger combed her wet black hair. Little droplets coolly sprinkled onto her forearms and knees as she worked. Each splash raised goose bumps and reminded her that as the steam dissipated, her warm bathroom was gradually becoming colder.

Finished with her hair, she grimaced and stood up. Dragging footsteps brought her slowly to the moist pile of clothing. Using two fingers, she picked up her underwear. The same goldfish underwear she'd been wearing for the past three adventurous, trying, and dirty days. Her face contorted into a grimace. When she felt Lilac approaching again, Kaoru gratefully dropped the cloth. Putting off getting dressed for a few more minutes wouldn't hurt.

Bounding out of the wall, the transparent lilac-colored mastiff slid to a stop right in front of her feet. His white snaggletooth stood out starkly around the pile of transparent black cloth he carried in his mouth. Holding out her arms, Kaoru allowed him to drop his gift: new clothes! As soon as the cloth touched her arms, it lost its transparent cast and became solid. "Lilac," Kaoru gushed, "you are the best!"

Sorting through the pile, she discovered a pair of black cotton pants, a man's navy blue dress shirt, and a pair of grey boxers. Kaoru didn't know who they belonged to. Later on she'd find out and thank them. For now, she just cared that they were clean.

* * *

Metallic gold irises peeked between sienna lashes - alert, cold, and analytical. Nothing indicated that a split second earlier their owner had been fast asleep. Something had intruded upon his rest: some misplaced sound or unfamiliar scent. Maybe it was Misao sneaking in again, even after his last warning.

Or perhaps the cause was something more sinister. It had been many years since the last wave of assassination attempts, but perhaps he was due for another. At least Kaoru was out of the way and hopefully safe.

A rustle more felt than heard prompted Kenshin to spring into action. Flinging himself out of bed, he snatched up his sword and spun into a defensive crouch, scanning the room as he twirled. Nothing.

His magical senses didn't detect anything out of the ordinary either, nothing besides the usual currents of energy and the still morphing magic from when Kaoru had woken his garden. It had taken him several hours that first day to figure out that the constant tripping of certain alarm spells were due not to invaders but to the strengthening and expansion of previously dormant spells.

Although he could have dreamed the disturbance, he didn't doubt his instincts. He feared that an intruder might have blended into the magic spawned disturbances and escaped detection. Expanding his senses, Kenshin faintly smelled something out of place in his masculine room. The trace whiff dissipated before he could identify it fully. It was a floral scent, but he couldn't say which flower. However, he would recognize it if he smelled it again. Then he would get some answers and, if necessary, neutralize any potential threats. Permanently.

After reinforcing the security spells around his room, Kenshin looked at the clock. It was just after 12:30 in the afternoon. "I shouldn't have slept so long," he berated himself.

If someone could sneak into his room so easily, they might also have found out about Kaoru. She could be in danger. Of course, she'd managed to evade his entire security force, so she wasn't exactly helpless or easy to find. For the first time that thought gave him some slight comfort.

Although Kenshin wanted to immediately rush out the door to find her, he forced himself to release the door handle and step back. He had responsibilities. Before he continued his search, he'd better get his secretary on the phone to postpone his appointments. Shinomori would also want to deliver an update. Hopefully there weren't any more emergencies that required his presence. Unfortunately, only so much could be delegated.

Stepping towards the phone, Kenshin caught his reflection in the mirror on the wall and was forced to laugh at himself. He wouldn't be able to blend into a crowd looking like this. After all, a naked redhead with tangled hair wouldn't be able to walk around the city without occasioning comment. It would be embarrassing, not to mention inconvenient, to be arrested by his own police force for public indecency.

* * *

Slipping on the boxers, soft from multiple washings, Kaoru felt a moment of hesitation. It wasn't like they were dirty, but underwear was an intimate thing.  _I really hope these don't belong to either Shinomori or that jerk Saitou. Yuck!_ Kaoru gulped nauseously and checked all the clothing tags just in case there was a name.

Unfortunately, the clothing didn't have any tags. Either they were hand-sewn or the tags had been removed for secrecy, she mused. Maybe it was against company policy to buy certain brands, so the owner of her new outfit removed the incriminating evidence rather than discard them. Just because she'd never heard of such a thing didn't mean it wasn't possible. Or maybe the owner found the tags to be itchy.  _Whatever the case, I'll have to make sure to return these when I'm done._

Adjusting the clean boxers on her waist, Kaoru grinned. _Maybe these just belong to a maid who has sensitive skin._  Pleased with this fiction, however unlikely it might be, Kaoru finished getting dressed. The cotton pants fit almost perfectly, although they were a little snug in the hips. She chuckled happily.  _No way could these belong to either Shinomori or Saitou, they'd be too short!_ After rolling up her shirtsleeves and pulling her hair out of the collar, Kaoru opened the door to the outer room.

Unsure of what else to do, she picked up her dirty clothing in one hand and, scarlet sandals dangling from two fingers, had Lilac lead her back to the garden. Refreshed and looking good, even if she was in borrowed clothing, Kaoru was ready for the confrontation.

It was with great satisfaction that she dropped her dirty clothing at the base of the maple tree next to the fountain. She'd worry about it later. Right now she had more important things on her mind. Alternating pacing and sitting, she planned out all of the things she wanted to say to Kenshin.

Kaoru waited. And waited. And waited. She was ready for anything - anything but more waiting. "For the love of-," Kaoru finally yelled out in exasperation. He knew she was in his garden the last time. Why was it taking so long for him to figure it out now?

Newfound instinct guided her next actions. Dipping her hands into the fountain, she spread her fingers and demanded, "I want to know where Lord Battousai is now!" Water churned and swirled, tickling her palms. After a brilliant flash, the pool went flat and quiet. Even the sound of water trickling out into the stream silenced. In-between Kaoru's two hands she felt a tugging, as if her skin were being pulled on by a host of small, suctioning mouths.

Inside the circle formed by her fingers a tiny vermillion disk coalesced. The disk grew to the size of an apple and resolved itself into an image of dark red hair covering a golden-skinned cheek - Kenshin's cheek. By moving her hands farther apart, she managed to enlarge the picture. Kenshin's head shifted and she could tell that his eyes were closed.

Kaoru's first thought was that Kenshin was sleeping. As the picture grew larger, more details appeared. His eyelashes looked clumped and the small lines streaking down his temples and cheeks resolved themselves into rivulets of water flowing over flesh. His face turned away until she could only see a profile. A hand appeared in the frame and pushed the wet hair back away from his face. With his hair slicked down by water, she noticed the crisp lines of his cheekbones and jaw. Wherever Kenshin was, he wasn't sleeping.

For a split-second Kaoru considered rain before remembering the clear sky over her head. When the image shifted away from his face to reveal white tile framing his well-toned shoulders, she fully realized her mistake. Eyes widening at the glistening expanse of skin, Kaoru jerked in surprise. This twitch separated the space not only between her hands, but between her individual fingers as well. Instead of enlarging the current picture like before, the image zoomed out. Turning brick red, Kaoru's eyes snapped shut.

By the time she jerked them open again, it was too late. Her rioting thoughts proved too much for the magic to comprehend. Confused by her conflicting desires, the image broke with a  _hiss-pop_ , returning the pool to normal.  _Or to as normal as a magical fountain could ever get_. The soft sound of water running over rocks and singing insects once again rippled through the garden.

"Maybe I'll wait a few more minutes to call him over," Kaoru mumbled, trying to cool her burning cheeks with her wet hands. "It would be the right thing to do," she told herself weakly, no matter if her fingers itched to dip back into the pool and watch again as the soap suds glided down his toned body, meandering slowly through the ridges where bicep met triceps and pectoral met abdominal.

But she was already reeling from the brief glimpse she'd just had. Any more and her brain would be reduced to a pile of mush, incapable of forming a complete sentence, much less punishing Kenshin for trying to get his buildings to swallow her. Not to mention that her moral indignation went right out the window if he caught her spying on him in the shower. She was the wronged party here. She deserved justice and couldn't afford to give him anything to accuse her with.

Too bad her body didn't find justice a convincing enough argument against voyeurism. Moving away from temptation, she stood up and forced herself to walk five circuits around the garden.  _There, the moral high ground isn't that hard._ Surreptitiously her eyes peeked over at the fountain. As soon as she realized what she was doing, she turned her head away. Then she bit her lip.

_Just for few seconds,_ Kaoru promised her conscience as she trotted back to the pool.  _Then I'll get back up on my high horse like nothing ever happened._ Kaoru's mouth went dry. Probably in preparation for all of the expected drool.

Using the power of her libido, Kaoru focused her thoughts on the pool again. "Show me Lord Battousai right now." Her hands were spread underwater and ready to go. Again a close up of Kenshin's face appeared. Not giving herself time to feel guilty or second-guess, Kaoru pulled her hands apart.

Although the expanded picture was startling, it wasn't quite in the way she had hoped for. Kenshin had already left the shower and dressed. Not only that, but he was already in the outer courtyard and looked to be heading out the front gate.

Kaoru's hopes for titillation drowned under a wave of panic as she fully comprehended the scene. If he disappeared into the city, he wouldn't be back for hours, if not the entire night. She'd either have to chase after him, probably fruitlessly, or else wait for him to get tired and return.

Waiting any longer was  _not_  in her plans for the day. She'd already used up all of her patience. Kaoru felt fidgety and hungry. Being forced to wait longer would not be without repercussions. If she didn't accidentally destroy the mansion or start a brawl amongst the security forces and magical spells, she'd somehow talk herself into forgiving him without punishing him first.  _This just won't do._

"Kenshin," she called into the fountain. "Kenshin, I'm here! I'm in the garden!" He didn't seem to hear her. "Stop, you idiot. Stop!" Jumping up in frustration, Kaoru didn't know what to do. There was no way she could run fast enough to stop him before he left the estate, even if she had known how to get to where he was.

"Damn it," she screamed, punching the wooden pillar on the veranda. Such was the force of her punch that the skin broke open, leaving bloody streaks on the golden wood. "You should know that I'm here," she whispered, hanging her head.

Kaoru heard a hollow  _crack_ , as if she'd been standing inside of an egg shell that suddenly split open. Suddenly she realized that she'd never taken off the spell hiding her from Kenshin and his magic. Not until her whispered words just now.

Immediately the whole garden began to reverberate. She could see the leaves on the tree trembling as if in a high wind and the rocks vibrating in their beds. The water in the pool turned opaque as white caps and waves formed. Kaoru fell to her knees. She only kept her chin from smacking into the ground by quickly wrapping her arms around the wooden pillar.

Without warning, the shaking stopped. Before the water had a chance to settle, the sliding door jerked open with such force that it cracked and fell off its tracks with a  _bang!_  Kenshin, hair damp, face wild and pale, stood in the doorway.

' _Kaoru_ ,' his lips caressed her name silently, worshipfully. Their eyes met and light infused his pale face, a savage, almost unbearable conflagration, as if he were a lantern that suddenly opened its shade to reveal a fusion reaction inside. "Koi," he said. Then his body folded, seeming to collapse.

Shocked out of her stupor, Kaoru lunged to her feet, intending to rush to his side. But seeing him place both hands flat on the deck and arch his back while balancing on the balls of his feet, she realized with a flash that it had been intentional. Aborting her sudden movement mid-leap, she winced as her body protested.  _I think I pulled a muscle_. Tilting her head, Kaoru couldn't figure out just what he was doing.

Answers came when Kenshin began speaking, or rather, Lord Battousai spoke and the very molecules of the air listened. The words emerged from his mouth like heat off concrete or invisible smoke that can only be seen through the shadows it casts. When he finished his chant, the entire garden was surrounded by a honey-colored dome of iridescent interlocking disks.

Kaoru imagined that this must be very like what a bee saw when entering a hive. The disks were prismatic, creating rainbows that flickered through the air like a cloud of butterflies. Face raised towards the apex of the dome, she faintly felt powdered wings brush against her face and eyes.

It enchanted her.

After a moment, Kaoru angrily realized that it was meant to. Without letting her speak a word, Kenshin had trapped her like a bug in a jar, refusing her any equality. A pretty cage was still a cage. If he expected her to be content with this he was in for a big surprise.

Looking towards Kenshin, she noticed that he'd stood up and stepped closer without her noticing. The expression on his face made her nervous. His eyes glittered strangely and she found herself unable to read his thoughts. Then he was suddenly there in front of her, engulfing her in his arms. Kaoru flinched back. Kenshin was too busy hugging her to notice or care.

For a moment her body wavered between remaining tense or relaxing into his hold. The warmth of his body seeped through her borrowed clothing as if it didn't exist. The voices in her head urging her to relax into his arms were drowning out their opposition.

It took a moment for his next sentence to register, distracted as she was by the feel of his hot breath stroking across her neck. "I'm so glad the spell finally caught you and brought you back." Hearing his words, her warming flesh turned to ice. The cold shocked her anger back to life.

Twisting in his hold, Kaoru elbowed him hard in the solar plexus and leapt back. "It didn't capture me - I came back on my own. And don't touch me, you bastard." SHE'd been the one who'd come back to talk it out like a civilized human being, but he had to insist on high handed capture attempts, sneaky spells, and arrogant statements.

An emotion flittered across Kenshin's face, too quickly to read, as he rubbed his chest. Cocking his head to the side, he cautiously asked, "Then you realize you were wrong to run away from me?" The pale and frantic look had faded from his face, to be replaced by mien of confidence and authority. "It is good that you admit your mistakes. Of course, you should have let the buildings take you yesterday morning and saved both of us the trouble." He sighed, but gave her a soft and encouraging smile. "However, as soon as you explain what you were afraid of, I'm willing to forgive you."

Jaw dropping, Kaoru stepped back and almost stumbled over her pile of soggy clothing. "Forgive me? Well, I'm not willing to forgive you!" After shouting these words, Kaoru bent over, picked up a handful of muddy fabric, and flung it at the smug lordling.

With a surprised yelp, Kenshin twisted out of the way. "Stand there and take your punishment like a man!" Kaoru demanded. Her fury rose higher as he dodged her next two mud-encrusted projectiles.

Out of nowhere, Lilac suddenly coalesced and started barking out loud. Kenshin's face looked startled, but he still managed to dodge both scarlet leather high-heeled sandals with ridiculous ease. Kaoru screamed, grabbed her last weapon, and hurled it with all of her strength.

Simultaneously, Lilac leapt. Tangling his semi-solid body in Kenshin's legs, the spell dog provided just enough of a hindrance; Kaoru finally scored! It was with great satisfaction that she watched the cloth splat against Kenshin's neck, releasing rivulets of brownish-yellow water across his shoulder and down his throat.

"ENOUGH!" commanded Lord Battousai in a voice of thunder that momentarily dampened the honey-prism light to gray and sent the butterfly rainbows fleeing to the far corners. With a whimper that cut off abruptly, Lilac dropped to the ground and rolled over. Flopping his head back, the dog submissively presented his vulnerable belly and neck to his master.

Glowering down at the spell dog, Lord Battousai delicately peeled the sodden fabric off his neck and held out the dripping offender with two fingers. His narrowed eyes stayed glued to the magical canine. A menacing growl escaped Kenshin's lips and Lilac cowered.

Although Kenshin's expression and casual use of power frightened her, Kaoru refused to let her accomplice be hurt. Not if she could help it. "You leave Lilac alone," she ordered in a voice unexpectedly steady. "Your business is with me, not him."

Kenshin sent a chilly glance her way from the corner of his eyes. Unnerved, she involuntarily took a step backwards. Then she gritted her teeth and marched forward until they were separated only by the groveling spell dog. "Lilac is innocent. Don't you dare hurt him."

Still looking every inch the lord and master, Kenshin growled softly at the dog. Lilac responded with a series of barks and whines. The two then locked eyes and some silent communication seemed to occur. Without warning, the spell dog bounded back to his feet. Kaoru jumped in surprise. Shaking himself briskly, Lilac turned transparent, gave Kaoru a reassuring, snaggletoothed doggie grin, and disappeared.

One problem down, Kenshin turned back towards Kaoru and the still dripping projectile in his fingers. "Now, what brought on this-," Kenshin's words ground to a halt as he focused on the fabric in his left hand. Anger softened into amusement. Kenshin brought up his other hand to untangle and stretch out the mysterious wet lump. Lips twitching, he asked, "Are you trying to tell me something?" Holding the fabric out to her he added, "Koi?"

Kaoru flushed as she realized just what he was holding: her goldfish panties! Sputtering, she made a frantic grab, but Kenshin effortlessly pulled them out of reach. "Ah ah ah, finders keepers," he teased. "It may have been a few years, but I still remember what it means when a woman throws her panties at me."

"That's not- I didn't mean-," Kaoru stuttered, "I was angry, that's all!"

"Of course, but just in case, I'll have these laundered for later." Twisting his wrist in a strange, figure-eight motion, the panties shimmered and disappeared. Kenshin's smirk widened, "I'll have to compare them to the ones you're wearing now to decide which ones I like best."

A gasp at his audacity escaped her lips. "Like I care about your opinion! Besides, you aren't going to be seeing me in my underwear at all, so you can get that idea right out of your filthy mind."

"No? Then I'll just have to guess. With that outfit I'd have to say," his eyes suddenly widened. Walking around her slowly, he began to laugh. It wasn't a mocking laugh like she'd first expected. Instead, his laughter sounded like a mixture of self-satisfaction, tender lust, and, curiously, relief. Kaoru thought she heard him gasp something about assassins and lilacs, but she wasn't sure.

Pressing suddenly against her back, he placed one scalding hand on her hip and stated against her neck with gentle authority, "Gray boxers, soft against your skin and slightly worn." When Kaoru jerked in surprise, he wound his other hand possessively around her waist and laughed that self-satisfied laugh softly into her hair.

Kaoru swallowed hard and unsuccessfully tried to disentangle his hands. "Of course not, where would you get a strange idea like that?"

"I know because these are  _my_  clothes you're wearing." Delighted laughter suffused his voice. As soon as he stopped speaking, he started chuckling again. If he didn't stop laughing soon, she was going to do something violent. Kaoru renewed her efforts to escape. His laughter slacked off as he began speaking again. Unfortunately, his hold remained just as tight. "I didn't notice at first because you… fill them out a bit differently. I must say that I much prefer them on you."

As Kaoru wiggled, the hem of her shirt crept up unnoticed. Kenshin took advantage of her distraction to slip his fingers under the hem and beneath the waistband of her pants. Feeling the tips of his fingers run searingly along her waist beneath the waistband of her boxer's, she bucked desperately. "Yes," Kenshin breathed huskily, laughter forgotten. "Mine."

Using the weakening of her knees to her advantage, Kaoru let her body drop, forcing Kenshin's arms up to her shoulders and allowing her to squirm out of his hold. "No touching!" she demanded, placing the slight trunk of the maple tree between their bodies. Her soft pants sounded loud in the silence of the garden.

"In case you missed it, I'm angry at you right now." Kaoru growled, forcing her breathing to slow even as she kept her knees bent and ready to dodge away from any other attempts to grab her. "You've been inconsiderate and arrogant, and that doesn't make me want to fling myself into your arms."

The amusement drained from his face as if she'd pulled a plug. An unreadable mask replaced it. Although his face had blanked, she could see his mind racing behind his eyes. Kaoru hoped he was finally reflecting on his actions.  _It's about time._

"Remember that I had little to no contact with magic before I came here. How do you think I felt when buildings suddenly started trying to swallow me? You bastard, have  _you_  ever been pulled into something the consistency of cold oatmeal?" Kaoru didn't wait for a reply.

Now that she'd started, she didn't want to stop. Throwing out her hands she continued, "And most of the time I can't even understand this voice you put in my head, only random words and phrases here and there." Kaoru realized that she was rather understating the overall impact of the soul-bond on her mind, but she was trying to make a point. If necessary, she could apologize later. "Did you know that most people who hear voices end up in a strait jacket? Maybe this sort of thing is normal for you, but it isn't for me. I might be going crazy and if I am it is entirely your fault."

Now standing in front of the tree, Kaoru paused in her pacing and cocked one hand on her hip. "You show up out of nowhere, bond me without my consent, and then hunt me down like some sort of criminal when I try to get away to think for a little while." A crease formed between Kenshin's brows. His lips opened as if in preparation to speak, but Kaoru wasn't finished yet.

"Then when I come back to try and talk this over with you reasonably, you use your magic to trap me here before I can even say a word. Of course I'm upset!" Kaoru exclaimed. "I shouldn't have to explain anything to you." Twirling away, she began pacing in front of him again. "You should be the one explaining your inexcusable actions to me! Why the magical barrier, why the police, why the traps, huh?" Her voice softened as she held out one hand towards him and revealed, "That hurt."

During her tirade, Kenshin had stood silently, arms crossed as he listened to her accusations. At her statement, however, he sprang forward and grabbed her wrist, focusing on her bloody knuckles. "You're hurt? Where else, how?" His eyes focused unnervingly on her body, probing for more cuts and bruises.

_He completely misunderstood my meaning._  Opening her mouth to explain, Kaoru found her jaw snapping shut on the words as Kenshin dragged her demandingly over to the pool.

Sitting down, he forced Kaoru onto his lap. "Did one of my men do something? None of my magic should have physically harmed you, though I now realize I underestimated its unpleasantness. Unless I made a mistake. Was it my spell? Did my magic hurt you?"

Picking up her bloody knuckles, he cupped a handful of water from the fountain and gently trickled it over the cuts. "I expected your anger, but I had hoped I could eventually calm you down. If I've injured you in my zeal to get you back, tell me. Tell me what I've done so that I might make it right," he insisted. "I never wanted your pain, I swear it."

Tugging at her clothing, he begged, "How badly are you hurt? Where did I hurt you?" Unable to get a word in edgewise, Kaoru grabbed his hands and attempted to keep her body covered. Something Kaoru feared might be madness glittered in his eyes. "What have I wrought? Not again, please," he whispered in a pain filled voice as he ran his hands across her body.

Unlike his previous touches, there was nothing sexual or teasing about it. Although still tender, his focus was purely on assessing her body for injuries. She was just glad that he no longer had much to find. Although she wanted Saitou punished, she didn't want him dead.

"Kenshin! Kenshin, I'm fine," she tried to explain. "I only have a few measly bruises and some scraped knuckles. Calm down, please." As Kenshin's mumbled apologies continued unabated, Kaoru realized he hadn't heard a word she'd said.

When Kenshin stopped speaking, Kaoru thought he might have finally calmed down. Then he lifted his hand into the sky and spoke more of those words that looked like smoke shadows. Lightning flashed and struck his upraised palm with blinding intensity.

Yelping, Kaoru cowered into his chest. Looking up at the sky, she missed Kenshin dipping his hand into the fountain. However, she quickly figured it out when his wet hand pressed against her lips. "Drink," he commanded.

"Uh mph," Kaoru refused through closed lips. Her stubborn nature reared its head.  _I don't wanna_. She wasn't some doll he could maneuver at his whim. Shaking her head, she bumped his hand and spilled out all of the water.

Through her back she felt more than heard Kenshin growl. He brought another handful of water to her mouth. "I can do this all day, Kaoru. Drink it!" he ordered. His free hand held the back of her head steady, limiting her evasive maneuvers. ' _Just do it. Won'tHurt drinkStubbornDrink_ ,' called Kenshin's soul from inside her mind. Glaring at his corporeal counterpart from the corner of her eye, Kaoru finally opened her mouth and sipped across his fingers.

For a moment nothing happened. She waited for the warm tingle and sunlit scent that had presaged magical healing in the past. The warm tingle began, but quickly turned into a raging inferno. Kaoru felt like she'd just gulped down a barrel of wasabi and then been kicked in the lungs by an angry mule. Gasping, she felt tears streaming from her eyes.

When she could finally breathe, she wheezed, "Are you trying to kill me? What did you do to that stuff?"

Kenshin laughed sheepishly as he wiped away her tears with his thumbs. "I guess I made it a little bit too potent," he apologized.

Not only had Kaoru's knuckles and bruises completely healed, but her hair had also doubled in length. Unfortunately, so had her nails. "Kenshin, you bastard, look at my hands!" she complained as soon as her eyesight cleared enough for her to see the taloned monstrosities.

"And?" he asked.

"Do something about it," she ordered imperiously, "before I do something to you!"

Kaoru could hear the smile in his voice as he replied, "As My Lady commands."  _At least he seems to have calmed down now._ Shifting on his lap, she waited for his magic to come to her aid.

Forming a ring with his thumb and middle finger, Kenshin spoke several words of power into the air. When the echoes stopped, Kaoru examined her hands and feet. "Your spell didn't work. They're still long, Kenshin."

"Of course it worked," he replied calmly. "That's what these are here for." Between his fingers he now held a sturdy looking pair of stainless steel toenail clippers.

Kaoru would have slapped herself on the forehead if she hadn't feared gouging out one of her eyes in the process. "Of course," she repeated drolly. "Why didn't I think of that?" As Kenshin began her demanded manicure and pedicure, she laid her head back down on his shoulder and sighed.  _The most powerful mage in the country and he still has to use nail clippers just like everyone else._

An amused smile quirked Kaoru's lips. The mundane nature of it all comforted her. It dissolved the kernel of fear that had been forming from Kenshin's actions and reminded her of the man she'd seen that first night when their hands had touched. Lord Battousai was powerful and frightening, yes, but he was Kenshin of the gentle hands and wicked sense of humor too.

After several minutes, the clipping stopped. Kaoru felt Kenshin's magic again and assumed that he'd returned the clippers to wherever they'd first come from. It was becoming easier to sense when he used magic. For an indeterminable amount of time she simply lay there with her eyes closed. Her head had slowly slipped down to rest against Kenshin's bicep. Feeling her head start to slide down towards his elbow, she took it as a sign that naptime was over.

Opening her eyes languidly, she lifted her head and found Kenshin staring down into her face. As she leaned forward, spikes of his wet hair licked against her cheeks. There was something both vulnerable and ravenous in his gaze, but as soon as she moved, he blinked and it disappeared. Kaoru wondered if she'd really seen the previous emotions or only imagined them.

"Kaoru?" he questioned softly.

Amiably she replied, "Yes?"

"That morning," she felt the vibration of his hesitant swallow, "Why did you run away?"

 

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm moving off to grad school here in the fall of 2006. Yay!
> 
> I want it known that despite my nomenclature, I have no prejudice against bastards. I just love the way the syllables roll off my teeth and tongue, so that's why it's become one of my insults of choice. I keep meaning to find something else with an appropriate definition that matches its sound – something guttural or visceral but not crass or too crude. Any suggestions? In real life I've come to rely on the word "curses," which, I'm told, makes me sound like a Scooby Doo villain. I'm just not into four letter expletives.
> 
> Kaoru's pro-wrestling interest was inspired by the heroine in "Kimi wa petto." Though I will admit that back in elementary school I watched WWF. Does anyone else remember The Undertaker locking Hulk Hogan in a coffin? And didn't the Ultimate Warrior hate Hulk Hogan too? It's been many a year. I totally believed it was all real at the time, though. Disillusionment was startling and painful. (Pats chibi-Indygodusk on the head consolingly)
> 
> Lilac's snaggletooth was inspired by Schnapps in Dara Joy's Tonight or Never. The book is more sexcapade than plot, as are many of this author's, but I enjoyed it nonetheless. Anyone read Ritual of Proof? That one quite amused me for the gender reversals.


	9. Advance and Retreat

 

Fiery prickles ricocheted across the surface of her mind, akin to the feeling of moving a limb that had fallen asleep from lack of circulation.  Of course, it hadn’t been her arm or leg that had needed waking.  It had been her purpose.  Sitting there so snugly had almost made her forget the answers she still needed to discover.

Unfortunately, she had a weakness for Kenshin’s touch.  _No, not just his touch_.  She knew what the real culprit was - his warmth.  There was something unique about the heat given off by a man’s body that no other electric or heavenly body could duplicate.  And the heat given off by Kenshin’s skin? It was a hundred times more potent. 

_What was that strange comic book from overseas called?_   One of the boys in her kendo class had insisted she read it last year. _It had starred an alien superhero who pretended to be a news reporter when he wasn’t busy saving the world in red and blue spandex._   Well, whatever it had been called, she remembered that the superhero’s one weakness was a glowing green rock called kryptonite. 

Kenshin’s fuzzy-soft body heat, his protective-warm-sleepy body heat, his dangerous, overpowering, trust-me-love-me-don’t-argue body heat... that was Kaoru’s kryptonite.  But she still needed answers.  Kaoru wasn’t ready to lay bare her weaknesses of character until he had asked forgiveness for his. They needed to discuss his actions first before they even got into her running away. 

So first things first - the touching had to go.

Closing her eyes, Kaoru tried to rise from the circle of Kenshin’s body.  However his cradling arms instantly tightened into iron bands, locking her in place.  No matter how she strained, his grip didn’t budge.  It only tightened. Swallowing a pant, Kaoru had to glance down to make sure Kenshin’s arms were still flesh and hadn’t turned into actual metal.

“Kenshin,” she began, “there are other things we need to talk about.”  Surely he must feel the pounding of her heart.  She didn’t like being restrained like this.  It was making her feel trapped.  Bad memories were surfacing. “Let me up.”

“Kaoru,” his voice faltered, and for a moment she thought the loosening of his hands meant he was letting her go.  Instead, his body merely shifted until they were both sitting on the ground and her back was braced against his shoulder and raised knee, almost perpendicular to his torso.  His movements were so smooth that by the time she recognized the opportunity it was already over. 

The placement of his arms restricted any escape attempts. All she could do was curse the fact that she no longer had the leverage or room to kick, bite, or elbow his sensitive bits until he released her.  Not unless she dislocated a joint first.  Inky memories and dark emotions were bubbling to the top of her mind and over-riding the soporific affect of Kenshin’s body warmth. 

“Kaoru, what made you run away?  Did something upset or frighten you?” he demanded.

_He’s a man.  Aren’t men supposed to avoid talks about feelings?  Besides which, I’m here to press him to explain_ his _feelings to_ me _.  He’s not supposed to ask me to explain mine to him.  I don’t want to talk about this. I don’t want to be trapped!_ Lips pressed firmly together, Kaoru stared across the garden without seeing anything.  It was becoming difficult to keep her breathing even.

A sigh brushed across her cheek and she felt a brief pressure across the top of her head that might have been a kiss.  “Kaoru,” Kenshin rumbled authoritatively in her ear, “we will have this conversation.”

“No, we won’t,” she quite firmly denied.   Despite knowing it was futile, she still arched her back and flexed her calves in an attempt to escape his hold. His arms, if possible, tightened farther around her body.

Only the sound of her labored breathing filled the clearing.  Kenshin didn’t repeat his question.  He didn’t need to.  It still hovered in the air, an almost tangible weight pressing down upon her head, adding to her sense of constriction.

Curling her bare toes against the ground, one of her few body parts unfettered, Kaoru turned her head away from Kenshin and bit her lip hard.  She’d learned that the pain sometimes helped her focus, but only sometimes.  This time it worked. 

Slowly drawing in a deep breath, Kaoru tried to bring order to the emotional monsoon in her mind.  Panic. Frustration. Anger. Attraction. Fear. Embarrassment and shame at the fact that she still- but no, she didn’t want to think of that. 

Kaoru could feel her emotional control slipping away again.  Her mouth was dry.  She was starting to find it hard to breathe. Anger and pride heaved momentarily to the forefront of her mind and in desperation Kaoru grabbed at them, making them her shelter from the storm of emotions and memories. 

Taking a few seconds to order her thoughts, Kaoru brought her breathing under control.  In a soft but clear voice she stated coldly, “Lord Battousai, I don’t want you ho-” _holding me down while we talk_ , she meant to say, but the sharp jerk of his body startled her into looking sideways at his eyes.

Anger turned to ash on her tongue.  The sheer intensity of emotion blazing from his face knocked her into a stunned silence.  Kaoru swallowed.

She couldn’t remember what she’d been saying or thinking.  Part of her felt like a rabbit huddling between the claws of a mountain lion, seeing death in the eyes of the predator hovering above her.  The other part of her mind was too busy marveling at the exotic beauty in his lethal face to realize her imminent demise.

With their faces so close, she could clearly see gold and copper flames boiling dizzily through the irises of his eyes, disturbing the whites with blasts of superheated steam. In the extreme emotions flashing from his face, the only emotion she could hesitantly identify was anger. 

Yes, Kenshin looked angry. But to call it just anger would be like calling a monsoon a little sprinkle of rain.  The magnitude of his emotion was such that it far surpassed her own.  It trembled through the garden with a subsonic roar. 

Finally Kenshin blinked, shuttering those fiery orbs momentarily from her sight and allowing Kaoru to regain part of her wits.  _Must he always express his emotions with such intensity?_ She tried to make the thought sarcastic, but it trembled in her mind between fear, awe, and curiosity.  Obviously he was not happy that she wouldn’t answer his question.

“Why,” he growled, “why do you once again deny me?”  One of his hands came up to tightly grasp her chin.  He turned her head until she was looking fully up into his face, his blazing emotion singeing the air separating their skins.

“Does my touch no longer throb through your veins? Have the whispers of magic and fate become mute?” The skin across his cheeks was drawn tight, bringing the cross-shaped scar on his left cheek into sharp relief.  Seeing that mark of pain and mystery so stark upon his pale face, Kaoru forced herself to think.  She was missing something here. 

For some reason, Kenshin was no longer talking about her avoidance of his question.  He was talking about something else, something she didn’t understand. Kaoru bit her lower lip again.  Of course his touch still throbbed in her veins, a deep rhythm pounding through both her magic and flesh.  It hadn’t stopped since he’d first touched her palm-to-palm and forced her to acknowledge it.  And if those magic-borne whispers _had_ ever shut up, did he think she’d even be here?  Back in the garden where he’d been able to trap her?

Kaoru released her abused lip to try and form an answer to his questions. Yet as soon as her mouth opened, something strange flashed across his face and he started talking before she could even start. On anyone else she’d call it panic, but that didn’t make sense with his anger.  Kaoru was confused.  She was so confused that she didn’t even think to struggle free now that one less arm restrained her.

In a deep voice he demanded, “Do you think I’d give up so easily?  Or,” his eyes seemed to flinch, “… or have you intentionally smothered those sparks of my soul that you possess?” 

Before she could even begin to answer the absurdity of that one, Kenshin interrupted her reply.  “You came back, Koi, all by yourself.  You can’t deny it now.”

He looked away from her face for a moment, and the surcease of magical and emotional heat let her draw in a deep breath of cool air into her dry lungs.  “Before our souls bonded, you’d already acknowledged the bond of fate, of magic.  You can’t take it back.”  He brought the searing heat of his gaze back to her face as he repeated, “you can’t.” 

The churning flames in his eyes suddenly morphed into slower ripples of bronze and violet.  Kaoru blinked.  Only then did she notice how strands of their hair had been tossing in the energy given off by his disturbed emotions, rhythmically rubbing together in red and black undulations before settling back down. 

The hand firmly cupping her chin softened and stroked gently down the tensed line of her neck.  Feeling the slight scrape of his calluses made her shiver.  The heat of his fingers made her sigh.

She wasn’t here to take back anything.  Kaoru opened her mouth to tell him just that, but once again, as soon as her lips moved, Kenshin quickly began speaking over her.  All the interruptions were reigniting Kaoru’s feelings of anger.  Huffing in frustration, she pushed back the hypnotic effect of his fingers stroking her neck and waited for an opening to speak.

“You cannot take back the bond,” Kenshin repeated as arcs of violet-bronze fanned across the black pupil of his eye, revealing for a split second a deep tunnel with something pulsing at its heart.  “Stop denying what you know to be true.  You are the only woman I have ever chosen, the sole mate of my magic and my heart.” 

Kenshin’s constant accusations of her trying to take back their bond just because she didn’t want to answer a single question exasperated her.  Plus he wouldn’t let her defend herself. And he was ordering her around.  She would wonder why she wanted to be with such an aggravating man, but the indulgent corner of her mind basking in his possessiveness wouldn’t let her forget all of his other, currently non-evident fine qualities.  Well, non-evident except for his luscious mouth, fine figure, and sexy voice.  _A sexy voice that won’t shut up!_

Finally, at last, he paused for longer than a second.  Before he could interrupt her again, or her mind started listing his good qualities in alphabetical order, Kaoru seized her chance. “How can I deny anything when you won’t let me talk! You’re not making any sense.  I never denied anything!”  Taking a quick breath to continue her rebuttal, she found herself adding, “Besides which, you seem to be conveniently forgetting about the choosing of your first wife in this conversation.” 

Kaoru wanted to bite her tongue as soon as the words slipped past her lips. _Good job, Kaoru. Instead of finding out the problem, you snipe at the angry man and bring up your jealousy - jealousy over his choosing another woman who lived and died_ centuries _before you were even born.  Just brilliant._

Surprise bloomed on Kenshin’s face, soon replaced by sadness as he looked over at the fountain.  “I was married once... a long, long time ago.  My first wife, Tomoe, will always a part of me, of my heart.  I could never forget her.” 

Kaoru suddenly felt very petty.  Remembering the story told on the museum tour about the Lady Tomoe’s death, she felt even worse.  She wouldn’t want a man who could easily forget someone that he’d once loved.  If Kaoru herself died, she’d be very sad if she were forgotten.

Besides which, a good woman wouldn’t begrudge her husband from finding happiness again with another woman after her death, or being the other woman, begrudge the first wife a place in his heart.  From all accounts, the Lady Tomoe had made mistakes in her life, but had in the end been a good woman.   If their situations were reversed, the Lady Tomoe would probably have accepted Kaoru graciously.

A small smile creased Kaoru’s lips.  She wanted to be a good woman too.  Right now, she was having a little trouble finding the maturity to be completely free of jealousy, but she was young and could always pretend.  Besides, she had time to develop that maturity.  _Time and…_ Kaoru looked at the earnest lines of Kenshin’s face… _and incentive_.

“But Kaoru… I haven’t lied to you. My marriage to Tomoe was a political arrangement.  We didn’t even know each other at first.  I never chose her, although in time I grew to love her.  When she…died, my heart went to sleep. It was a sleep I never expected to wake from.  But now my heart has decided to wake and live once more.”

Unable to take her eyes from his face, Kaoru watched as Kenshin’s tongue darted out to wet his lower lip. Gazing across the garden, he finally whispered, “Because of you.  As soon as my heart sensed you, it awoke.”

Kenshin’s eyes returned to Kaoru’s face, but stayed unfocused.  “You _are_ the first woman I have chosen as my own. You are the woman I want in my present and my future.” He licked that lower lip again and swallowed.  Kaoru realized that she was barely breathing. His warm fingers smoothed across her collarbone to rest at the base of her throat. The skin beneath his fingers tingled. “My heart cherishes _you_.”  Kenshin’s eyes cleared and focused on hers. 

As if saying those words had been a release, the unnatural stillness of the garden ended.  Although her eyes never left his, she could feel the unearthly wind release her hair to lie flat against her back.  Slowly, the longer their eyes stayed locked, the movements of shapes and colors in his eyes stilled.  After a few seconds she realized that the stationary royal purple that had diffused into his irises was there to stay. 

With Kenshin’s words of love still echoing in her ears, Kaoru made a split-second decision.  For just a minute, she’d allow herself to forget her pride and reservations and would follow her instincts. Since the restraining arms around her body had loosened, she used her freedom to twist, rise up onto her knees, and turn into his chest.  Their positions now gave Kaoru a distinct height advantage, as Kenshin was still sitting flat on the ground.

Looking down into his dark eyes tenderly, Kaoru reached over and ran her fingers gently and with great concentration down the side of his face.  Her thumb soothingly traced along the lines scarring his cheek.  

A shuddering sigh moved through Kenshin’s entire body as his long, golden lashes slipped down to cover his eyes.   Turning his face into her hand, he nuzzled her palm.  His hands, however, stayed passively down by his sides.  The contrast to his previous behavior was astounding.

Kaoru felt her breath catch in her throat.  He seemed so vulnerable and trusting, just like an innocent child. At that moment she wanted nothing more than to protect and love the seemingly gentle soul cradling her hand to his mouth. 

But he wasn’t a child.  Kenshin was a complex man that she was only beginning to dimly understand. _Nevertheless…._  

Bringing her other hand up to softly cup the nape of his neck, Kaoru leaned forward and placed a light kiss on his temple.  She felt the tickle of eyelashes as Kenshin opened his eyes beneath her fingers. 

Shifting minutely, he gave her a mute, sideways glance.   Responding to something in that silent, unshielded gaze, Kaoru leaned forward again to place a lingering kiss on his forehead.  She could feel the feathering of his lashes as they once again closed. Her fingers softly rubbed through the soft hair at his nape, coaxing him to let go.

As his tense muscles relaxed, Kaoru felt more of his weight come to rest against her body. She welcomed it. Moving up, she bestowed upon the crown of his head two more delicate kisses.  Then she sat back down onto her heels and gently reclaimed her hands.

“We still need to talk,” Kaoru said softly after a moment of comfortable silence, hoping her words wouldn’t ruin the peaceful atmosphere.

Slowly raising his eyelashes, Kenshin shrugged his shoulders as if settling his burdens back into place. Although his eyes no longer looked like those of a child, he seemed calm and composed. His hands came to rest on his thighs, restoring an appearance of calm authority.  Kaoru could feel his thumbs brushing against the outsides of her hips where she knelt, still bracketed by his thighs.

“Agreed,” he said with a nod of his head.

Nibbling on her lower lip, Kaoru tried to figure out how to word her question.  She was startled when Kenshin placed his thumb against her mouth.

“What did I say about that habit of yours?”  Bringing his thumb back to his mouth, he licked it slowly.  Then he blew across the tip. Leaning forward, he brushed it across her battered lip.  As his wet thumb dragged back across her mouth, Kaoru noted breathlessly that the stinging faded, replaced by a pleasant tingling. 

Finally Kenshin leaned back with a satisfied smile on his face.  After the silence had dragged on for over a minute, Kenshin prompted, “You wanted to say something?”

Giving herself a brisk shake, Kaoru said, “Yes, sorry. Kenshin...before, why did you think I was denying you and the bond?” 

“Then you weren’t,” he gave a relieved sigh. “So you didn’t mean it.”

“No. Kenshin,” Kaoru reached up to rub at her eyes, “you’re starting to not make sense again.”

“That’s why,” he said.

Kaoru stared for a second.  “See?  Not making sense.” 

“Are you saying you didn’t know what you were doing?” Kenshin asked skeptically.

A cross between a sigh and a growl escaped Kaoru’s mouth.  “I’m saying I _still_ _don’t know_ what you think I did to make you think whatever it was you were thinking.  Wrongly.”

In the ensuing silence, Kenshin scratched his head and sent Kaoru a confused look.  Kaoru clenched her fists and considered the merit of beating some sense into Kenshin.  Seeing the violence darkening her features, Kenshin suddenly straightened up and began speaking.

“Alright, I think I can guess what you were trying to ask me,” Kenshin began.  Kaoru’s fists itched.  “You called me Lord Battousai, my title. By not calling me Kenshin, I thought it meant that you were going to repudiate our association.  It sounded like,” he seemed cornered, like he didn’t want to admit something. Looking at the ground, he mumbled, “Like you were going to say you didn’t want me, want to be with me.” Lifting his head back up, Kaoru could practically see him putting on a mask to hide his emotions.  “I see now that I was wrong.”

Twining her fingers in her extraordinarily long hair, she tugged at it absently while she considered his words.  He had been upset because she hadn’t called him Kenshin.  Not once in his ranting had that explanation even entered her mind.

Since Kaoru hadn’t been able to distance herself physically, she had had to do it verbally by calling him Lord Battousai. However, he must have taken her signal of displeasure and extrapolated that she was repudiating their entire relationship. 

Which she hadn’t been. 

Kaoru had just wanted to let him know that she was not pleased without having to spell it all out.  It was simple and obvious and a woman would have gotten it.  Only a man would jump to such an extreme conclusion.  Or maybe only this man. 

Blowing her bangs out of her face, Kaoru made a mental note to try and spell things out for him in the future… because they would have a future.  She wanted that future with him. Despite all of her running, Kaoru now had a Kenshin shaped space in her heart that only he could fill.  Kaoru wanted him to fill it. 

From Kenshin’s words, it sounded like he also had a space just for her in his heart.  Of course, he didn’t know everything about her past.  If he really knew just how weak she was, would that change the way he felt?  _No, don’t think about that Kaoru.  Play this right and you can avoid the topic all together._

All she had to do was spell out why she was mad at him for the way he had tried to track her down.  This time there weren’t any injuries to get him side-tracked. Then he would apologize.  She’d have to make sure he apologized for the loss of her sock too.  As soon as she (casually) confirmed that he didn’t need her to be a social hostess, their problems would all be over.

At that point, Kenshin would proclaim his love again.  In the process, she’d give him back his gray boxers and let him check her bonding mark (just to make sure it was healing properly, of course) and then they’d start on that future. Together.

_But first…_ “Yes, you were wrong.  I’m not here to deny our bond, but,” she held up a finger in warning, “that doesn’t mean that everything is decided,” Kaoru warned.

When Kenshin’s arms came up to grasp her biceps, she tensed.  She hadn’t been expecting his movement.  She was trapped again.  “That’s right,” he said, “you still need to tell me why you ran away.”

“Kenshin,” noting the lines bracketing his eyes relax fractionally at the use of his name, Kaoru hardened her own eyes.  “I will not discuss this with you-,” Kenshin’s expression became hard and relentless as he opened his mouth to protest, but Kaoru talked over his words, “sitting on your lap.”

It took Kenshin a few seconds to grasp what Kaoru had just said.  “We will discuss this,” he stated unequivocally, “and you will… wait, what did you just say?”

Mentally crossing her arms in pique, she repeated her compromise. “I said that I would not discuss this with you while sitting imprisoned in your lap.  Let me up.”  She flexed her arms within his hands.

Warily scanning her face, Kenshin slowly relaxed his hands.  “Very well, but we will discuss this and you won’t run away.”  Kaoru shrugged out of his grip and stood up.  “Remember that you are trapped in this garden,” he warned.

Kaoru twitched.  “Gee, thanks for the reminder. I mean it’s so easy to forget the reason for the huge glowing honeycomb in the sky.”  Marching away several steps fractiously, she spun back around with her hands on her hips.  “Actually this ties in perfectly with what I wanted to talk about.”

Rising lithely to his feet, Kenshin cautiously stated, “I thought we were going to discuss why you ran away.”

“No, Kenshin, we are going to talk about you and your obsession with traps.  I hate traps and you are always trying to trap me.  How do you think that makes me feel?” Kaoru gulped in a breath, eager to get all her grievances out while she had the chance.

“I won’t even go into the many ways you trapped me that first night we met,” Kaoru could feel the words clawing at her throat, racing to get out. “It really pisses me off that I come back to talk to you on my own as a gesture of trust, and in return you slap my gesture in the face by trapping me in this dome.”

 “And having the buildings try and swallow me… the feeling of helplessness, of pressure along every inch of my skin, like cold oatmeal compressing around me tight…” Kaoru felt her thoughts flying far away from the garden, but was helpless to stop them, “tighter and heavier until I can’t breathe or move and it hurts but no one can hear my screams, until I can’t scream and….”

“-oru, Kaoru?”

She came back to her senses to find herself looking into Kenshin’s anxious visage. It took her a moment to notice the pressure of his hands cupping her face.  When he saw her eyes focusing he relaxed slightly.

“Koi, is…” his words faltered for a moment, but he firmed his lips and tried again.  “Is my spell this specter that haunts your eyes? Did I do this?”

Taking a shuddering breath, she banished the quiver in her lip.  Then she stepped back from Kenshin’s warm fingers, trying not to notice how they trailed along her face fleetingly as she moved away.  “No, your spell didn’t hurt me.  I escaped before it could pull me in all the way.  I’m simply using my imagination to explain to you what a horrible spell it is.”  Moving her eyes away from his probing gaze, she forced the looming monolith of her past to shrink back down into a mere memory.

After bringing her face back under control, Kaoru tried to remember where she’d been in her list of complaints.  “Not only was that an awful spell, but you never should have gotten the police involved.”  Temper reigniting as she spoke the words, Kaoru managed to once again look Kenshin in the face.  It was hard to ignore the measuring look in his royal purple eyes warning her that the topic had only temporarily been dropped. 

Nevertheless, she focused her energies on the problems of the here and now.  “This was a problem between you and me.  There was no need to involve the entire army!”

A surprised huff escaped Kenshin.  “Kaoru, the city doesn’t have a standing army. We only have a police force and my private guard.”

Kaoru flung her hands up, “Call it what you will, I know what I saw, and that was a never-ending stream of faces all determined to drag me back here by my hair.”  The humoring look on Kenshin’s face made her wish for more muddy clothing to fling at his head.  “It’s true!  Those weren’t all choirboys you sent after me.  You should have seen the way that last jerk practically ripped my pants off when he-”

“What!!” Kenshin roared.  “Who?  I’ll have his head!” 

_Uh oh._   Kenshin’s eyes had once again turned molten yellow-gold.  _Not a good sign._   “That really didn’t come out right.  Calm down, Kenshin.  There was no intentional clothes ripping or molestation of any kind.”  _Ick!  Just the thought of that man touching me in any way lustful makes me want to puke.  But puking will not calm Kenshin down, so focus.  You can always use it as a distraction later if you need to._ “The seams only ripped a little and I suppose in a twisted way... he sort of helped me.  You can see for yourself that I’m fine, right?  Nothing happened that I couldn’t handle.” 

“Tell me his name,” Kenshin demanded.

Kaoru crossed her arms stubbornly.  “No.” Their eyes clashed, but Kaoru wouldn’t yield. “I’ll take care of that cigarette smoking bastard myself.”

Breathing heavily through his nose, Kenshin quickly turned away and strode across the garden.  She couldn’t see his face, only the tense set of his back and the way his fists rhythmically clenched.  “Very well.” His voice sounded almost gravelly.  “I won’t press you anymore.  I’m sure that the problem will be taken care of.”

When he walked back, his face looked marginally calmer.  His eyes were still yellow, but at least they were no longer molten.  Suspiciously Kaoru watched him come closer.  He’d given in almost too easily.  On the other hand, maybe he was just starting to get better at seeing things her way.  Tossing his hair behind his shoulder, Kenshin slowly stalked closer.

Casually putting the tree between them so that he wouldn’t grab her again, Kaoru thought about how convenient it was to be able to watch his moods by checking his eyes. All she had to do was learn to interpret them correctly. At each new emotion they changed in pattern and color. He had to be a horrible liar if you really knew him well.

_Then again, he is a politician.  He has to be used to lying successfully. That first night he didn’t seem to have too much trouble pretending with Megumi. This emotional ping-pong could be something new.  Maybe when his heart woke up, some of his other emotions woke up too.  Could be he’s just not used to dealing with them.  He might mellow out after a few weeks._

Kenshin stopped by the fountain and stood casually with one hand on his hip, acting as if he hadn’t just been making a beeline for her before she’d placed the tree between them.  His eyes became bubbled with gray-blue.  If forced, Kaoru would label it a pouty color.

Her lips quirked. _Or maybe I’ll just end up attached to a drama queen for the rest of my life._ For some reason, that thought didn’t bother her very much.  _At least I’ll never be bored._

“Kaoru,” Kenshin began, “I can see that my tactics upset you, but you were gone.  Having so many eyes looking was my best chance to get you back.  However, I gave strict orders that you were not to be hurt in any way.”  The brackets around his mouth tightened.  “If _anyone_ acted a little overzealous trying to help,” he stumbled over the word, as if he couldn’t believe the words he’d just used to describe his _anyone._  

Mentally Kaoru snorted at the thought of that jerk Saitou doing anything overzealously helpful.  _But Kenshin doesn’t know that it was Saitou, so why would he also find the description suspicious?_   Apprehension tightening her throat, she examined Kenshin’s face, but found nothing there to confirm or deny her speculation.

Clearing his throat, Kenshin continued, “Or rather, if anyone acted inappropriately, they will be punished.” 

“I already said I’d take care of that.  Besides which, you are missing the point,” Kaoru said, trying to steer Kenshin back to realizing he needed to give her his abject apology.  “Normally, only criminals get the police sent after them.”

Kaoru had a horrible thought and suddenly glared at Kenshin accusingly.  “What if I now have a criminal record?  How am I supposed to find a good job?  Or secure a loan with a decent rate? I’ve never even had a parking ticket!  Of course, I don’t have a car, but I’ve driven other people’s. You could have ruined my financial future!”

Folding his arms, Kenshin arrogantly answered, “Your future is with me.  You don’t need to worry about finding a job or getting a loan.  I’m rich.”

An inarticulate squeal of disbelief escaped Kaoru’s throat.  _He did not just say what I think he said._

Luckily Kenshin seemed to be fluent in the language of enraged feminine squeals, because he straightened up and suddenly looked a bit worried.  “I’m sure that there is no police record.” 

Kaoru could feel her eyes narrowing into angry slits as she turned her eyes towards a scan of her surroundings.  _Pain-giving object.  WHERE?_

Crouching down, she tried to pry up one of the heavy stones decorating the garden.  Unfortunately, the ground was loath to give it up.  Her strength or lack thereof had nothing to do with it, of course.  This lack of success just further enraged her.  Wrapping one hand around the trunk of the small tree, she imagined that it was Kenshin’s neck.  Bark crackled beneath her fingers and flaked to the ground.

The audible sound of Kenshin swallowing barely penetrated the roaring in her ears.  “Just in case, I will make sure Aoshi expunges every trace of your name from any reports.   There is no need to worry,” Kenshin placated nervously, taking several small step away when Kaoru turned the full force of her glare back onto him. 

Looking at her seething form from the corner of his eye he added slowly, “Of course, if you wanted a job I’m sure anyone would hire you.  And no bank would dare turn you down if you,” his face twisted for a moment as if he was swallowing something bitter, “if you wanted a,” he had to choke his final word out, “a loan.”

“Humph,” Kaoru grunted as she stood up. Placing her hands on her hips, she looked him up and down.  “Fine,” she grumbled. “I just want it understood that what you did made me very upset.”

“I understand,” Kenshin replied.

She relaxed her stance.  “As long as we’re clear.”

“Yes.”  Running a hand through his red-gold bangs, Kenshin considered her mutely.  Finally he spoke, “I’m sorry.”

Something barely perceptible in his tone of voice made her suspicious. Or perhaps it was the cool gold sheen in his eyes.  This was what she’d been waiting to hear but.... “You’re sorry you used the police to try and chase me down like an animal,” she confirmed.           

Kenshin blinked once and then answered cautiously, “I’m sorry that I hurt your feelings and made you feel trapped.” Those assessing mountain lion eyes examined her reaction to his statement.

Kaoru stamped her foot.  “That’s not the same thing at all!”

Incomprehension, tinged with exasperation, flickered across his face. “I’m not going to say I’m sorry that I tried to find you.  The magic paired us.  We’re bonded.  You complete me and I complete you.  We’re supposed to be together.  We’re meant to be together.”  He stepped towards her, “You know this.”

Although she heard his words, Kaoru didn’t want to acknowledge that they justified what he’d done. This was not going the way she’d planned it.  Kenshin didn’t seem to comprehend that he’d done anything wrong. 

_But at least he did apologize for hurting my feelings._   Crossing her arms, Kaoru tried to decide what was more important: being right or resolving the issue so they could move on.  _Which will make me a better person? A happier person?_  Short-term, the answer was easy.  She’d rather be right.  But long term.... _This is where you show how mature you can be.  Just take a deep breath and move on._

Before she could say anything, however, Kenshin began pacing across the garden. Frustration filled his every gesture.  “If you’d had your way, you’d be long gone, alone, and making the both of us miserable.  If I hadn’t been chasing you, you might never have come back.” 

“Hey,” Kaoru protested, “you don’t know that.”  Her voice wasn’t quite as confident as she’d intended it to be.  Deep down, she didn’t know the answers to his accusations either.  Would fear have kept her from coming back?

Kaoru decided that it wasn’t important.  That was over and done with.  She was ready to forgive him and move on to that life together that he kept demanding.

Pivoting, Kenshin turned to face her again. “I’m sorry you were unhappy about my methods, Koi, but we will be together – one way or another.” Rainbow sunlight gilded his hair, casting colored shadows along the contours of his leanly muscled body.  The lines of his face were taut and his entire mien radiated intensity. 

“My mind in your mind, my heart in your heart, my body tasting, touching, breathing in the secrets of your body. There is no you or me, there is only and ever us.”  Kenshin had never looked more masculine and implacable than he did at that moment.

And damn it if she wasn’t incredibly turned on. 

Kaoru licked her dry lips. His eyes narrowed and focused on her mouth.  Like a magnet, her body swayed towards Kenshin. 

Before she could take a step he was there, cupping her face in his hot hands.  Tilting her chin up with his thumbs, he brought his lips towards hers and stopped, only a whisper from touching her own.  Hot breath tingled across her face and Kaoru knew that if she didn’t get that kiss she was going to die. 

Involuntarily she growled, whimpered, made some sort of demanding noise that in another time and place might have embarrassed her.  But here and now, it only served to focus her need.  Fisting her hands into his hair, Kaoru yanked him across that miniscule space and boldly fused their lips. 

It was sugar and fire and slick flesh.  His tongue swept through her mouth voraciously, claiming and possessing with every stroke.  Her hands wandered down his back, up his chest, provoking a gasp from the man devouring her mouth.  Smiling, Kaoru continued to explore as her tongue tangled with his.  Nothing existed except his taste, his touch, and the gasped words of need, the sighs of pleasure.  The need to think, to breathe, all disappeared in the conflagration of their kiss.

Only when black spots flickered behind her eyes did they release each other.  Leaning limply against Kenshin’s body, Kaoru panted for breath.  Her fingers curled weakly against his shoulders.  For several minutes they merely held each other and tried to breathe.

“And now, Koi, you are going to tell me why you ran away,” Kenshin softly commanded.  His words were still breathless, revealing that she wasn’t the only one affected by that kiss.  “I won’t be mad, I just want to understand. I can’t make it better if I don’t understand. Please tell me. Why?”

Lips bruised from passion, hair disheveled, Kaoru looked into his concerned face and could no longer find her resistance.  “I,” she sighed and looked down at the collar of his shirt, “I heard someone talking about your… expectations in a wife.” 

Her teeth crept out to nibble on the edge of her lip, but quickly released it when she felt the warning shift of Kenshin’s fingers against her neck.  “I am neither elegant nor schooled in social graces,” she explained.  “I can’t throw grand parties and host parades.  I _can’t_.” 

Peeking up through her lashes at his expression, Kaoru searched for understanding.  _Please don’t make me tell you more.  Just accept the surface explanation._

Kenshin used his thumbs to tilt her face up to meet his gaze.  His words were measured, “Such things are not necessary.  I am sure you could learn how, but that is not required unless you wish it.  There are several people I pay very well to do such things for me.”

A soft sigh puffed against her face.  “As for my expectations in a wife, I’ve already told you all you need to know. Trappings aren’t important.  I don’t expect or want you to change yourself to fit some imagined ideal.” His lips curved up into a small, wry smile.  “My needs are simple.  Just love me and stay by my side forever.” 

Leaning forward, Kenshin placed a soft kiss against the left corner of her mouth.  Kaoru sighed.  He moved his lips to the right corner and repeated his kiss.  Pulling back, he examined her mouth for a moment.  Then he brought his lips to hers and rubbed back and forth along the seam of her mouth coaxingly.  Her lips parted.  Gently taking her lower lip into his mouth, he nibbled. 

Languidly Kaoru ran her hands down the sides of his face, tunneling her fingers into his hair.  She scratched her nails gently against his scalp.  Kenshin released her lips.  Changing the angle of his head slightly, he kissed her again: once, twice, thrice - soft, sweet kisses that trembled slightly on her mouth.

Then he leaned his forehead against hers and huskily asked, “Does that sound reasonable to you?”

Kaoru, whose lashes had inadvertently slipped closed during his kisses, blinked her eyes opened, smiled softly, and answered without hesitation, “Yes.”

Slipping his hands down to her waist, he snuggled her against his side.  For a minute they simply basked in the beauty of the rainbow flecked garden and each other’s presence. 

Eventually Kenshin shifted and gently asked, “Was that the extent of it?”

Although only a split second passed, it felt much longer to the suddenly uneasy Kaoru.  “Of course, what else could there have been?”  The silence following her question seemed weighted.

“I do not know. That’s why I asked,” Kenshin answered steadily. 

Kaoru kept silent, unsure how to reply. 

Giving a barely perceptible sigh, Kenshin said, “Very well.  Why don’t you tell me who it was that filled your ears with my supposed expectations?”

Kaoru fidgeted.  _I don’t want to get those two guards in trouble, even though their words did cause this mess.  I should have just talked to Kenshin about it in the first place.  If only I could have kept my head instead of panicking._  

Although she didn’t want to implicate Okon and Omasu, she had to tell Kenshin something.  _Would he believe it if I said Saitou?_  Kaoru snorted mentally _.  Like anyone would believe that Saitou would be gossiping in the hallway about parties and parades._

A sudden vision popped into Kaoru’s mind.  It featured the saturnine Saitou Hajime smoking a cigarette while sitting at a table with a group of faceless women.  _“Now tell me the truth,” he asked in that cruel tone of voice, “is that idiot Aoshi really thinking of changing the color scheme for the guard uniforms?”_

_Putting out his cigarette, he bit into a chocolate bonbon.  “And what’s this I hear about a new girlfriend?  I thought he was having an affair with the secretary on level two.”  One of the women made to grab the last strawberry tart, but he glared menacingly until her fingers retracted.  Then he picked the tart up, popped it into his mouth, and chewed with smug satisfaction. “C’mon ladies, share!” his gruff voice barked._

At that point, Kaoru choked. _Ack, my mind!_   _Think baby animals, baby animals!!_   Kaoru didn’t know whether to start laughing hysterically or fall down twitching. 

No, she would definitely not be blaming Saitou.  _Besides, he just got into town this morning, remember?  So he has an alibi._   That brought her back to square one in her mental game of ‘How to deceive Kenshin (for his own good and the good of other people).’

“Kaoru?” Kenshin asked again.

“Well,” she said slowly, still feeling a little twitchy from her imaginings, “I don’t know who it was.  They were passing by my room while I was inside getting dressed, so I never saw their faces.”  Wanting a clear view of his eyes while they spoke, she stepped away from his side.  His arms released her reluctantly.  “It doesn’t really matter, does it?”

Unfortunately, Kaoru had forgotten that stepping away gave Kenshin a clearer view of her own features as well.  He took advantage of this fact to scrutinize her face... her lying face. _But just because I know it’s a lying face doesn’t mean he knows it.  Besides, it’s only a little lie!_ Meeting his gaze as guilelessly as she could, she began mentally reciting the names of baby animals found south of the equator.

Finally Kenshin spoke.  “No, I suppose it doesn’t matter.”

Flushed with success, but trying to hide it, she went over her to-do list for Kenshin. Kaoru realized that it was about as complete as it was going to get it.  She sighed.  The abject apology wasn’t going to happen.  But at least she could still hope for the bonding mark examination!  Later on they could get around to eating a late lunch.  After all, there was hunger and then there was _hunger_.

“Well then,” Kaoru began, “why don’t you get rid of this dome and let us out of here?”

It was with confusion that Kaoru watched as Kenshin took a step back and folded his arms behind himself.  “I’m afraid I can’t do that just yet.”

Something sour curdled in Kaoru’s stomach.  This was not good.  “Why not?” she questioned uneasily.

“Because there is still something we need to talk about,” he stated.

Resting all of her weight on her right leg, Kaoru used her left foot to scratch her ankle.   In a casual tone she rejoined, “I think we’ve pretty much covered everything, Kenshin, unless you’re going to give me that abject apology now for chasing me and stealing my socks.”

Brow wrinkling, he muttered, “What? Oh.” A tic momentarily developed next to his right eye.  “No, we are not going to revisit that topic again.”

Taking a quick breath, he shifted his weight to his toes but kept his hands locked behind his back.  Opening his mouth, he plunged them both into the topic she’d been avoiding.  “Kaoru, something happened two years ago, something you still haven’t told me about.” 

Distantly she felt the muscles in her face freeze. At her silence, Kenshin continued. “I know it might be difficult, but if we are to have a successful relationship, I have to know.  You are afraid of something.  I can’t fix it if I don’t know what’s wrong.  Please Koi, tell me. What happened?”

Kaoru swallowed. “I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

“You do,” he refuted.

Fisting both hands into the hem of her shirt, she heatedly challenged, “Are you calling me a liar?”

“Are you lying?” Kenshin pressed.

 “If I am a liar I wouldn’t tell you the truth to that, now would I?” she flung out through bared teeth.

A beat of silence passed, and then suddenly green striated his golden eyes like a bamboo forest straining sunlight.  He took a step forward, reducing the distance between their tense bodies. The gold disappeared almost completely as green bloomed across his eyes.

“If you look me in the eye and swear to me that you aren’t lying,” Kenshin said seriously, “I will believe you.” 

“I- I,” looking up into his pleading, bamboo forest eyes, Kaoru felt the lie strike off her teeth and ricochet back down her throat.  She felt sick to her stomach, but she couldn’t do it.  She couldn’t utter one more untruth in the face of his words.

Closing her eyes, Kaoru turned and strode as far away from Kenshin as she could get within the constraints of the magical dome.  Then she stood staring blindly at the glowing wall blocking her way.  Her mind raced, trying to find a way out.

Across the garden Kenshin waited silently.  She almost would have welcomed more questions, something she could twist into anger or another argument.  But Kenshin was too wise for that.  He let the silence build, the heavy weight tugging at her constantly like the moon pulling out the sea, exposing her past like an antiquated ship wrecked upon the ocean floor that only surfaced because of the midnight tide.

That she would speak was inevitable.  Nevertheless, she feared the consequences. Would he still think of her with love when she was done, or would his emotions twist to pity or disgust at her weakness?  She didn’t know. 

Yet the tug of silence was inexorable. 

“It was autumn,” Kaoru began softly.  Best to start at the beginning.  That way she wouldn’t have to go back and repeat anything later. 

“A student from our dojo was moving out of town, so he gave me some baseball tickets as a present.”  She took a deep breath.  Trailing her finger around the edge of a glowing honeycomb in the shield, she felt the magic buzz against her skin. 

“Rain puddles had dampened the seats and turned the field muddy, but everyone was so excited that they didn’t care.  I went to go and buy some cotton candy.  I remember that they had blue and pink.  I couldn’t decide which flavor I wanted.” The colors were vivid in her mind, standing out starkly in her monochrome memory of the concession stand.

“In fact, I took so long to decide that I wasn’t in my seat when the bomb went off,” Kaoru explained calmly, still tracing shapes on the glowing barrier.

Kaoru heard a muffled curse from behind her back.  Kenshin growled and said, “Two years ago September there was a terrorist bombing on a baseball dome down south.  It was one in a string of attacks that year.”

“Yes, it was September.”  Turning towards Kenshin, she tried to meet his gaze, but found her eyes stuck at the level of his chin.  “I was lucky,” she forced herself to continue, “Almost everyone sitting in my section was immediately killed.  After the explosion, everyone started to run, trying to get outside, get away.  But there were too many people.  I made it about a block before someone shoved me from behind and I tripped.”

Dropping her eyes to the dark earth beneath her feet, Kaoru forced herself to pick out individual grains in an attempt to distance her mind from the words pouring out of her mouth.  “I fell into a patch of muddy lawn.  I remember the water splashing up into my eyes, stinging.  I tried to get up, but there were too many people.  They kept pushing me down, stepping on me, trying to get away from the blast.  No one cared about the girl they were trampling beneath their feet.”  Kaoru took a quivering breath.  “After I lost consciousness, my body got kicked beneath a nearby bush.  The doctors say that I was lucky to survive.”

“Oh Koi, I’m so sorry,” Kenshin offered in an anguished tone of voice. 

At his words, Kaoru looked up.  His face was pale and one hand was rising, reaching out towards her.  Kaoru took a step back.  If he touched her, she’d break down crying and then she’d never finish the story.

“I healed, left the hospital, and returned home.  Everything was fine for a little while.”  Turning, Kaoru began pacing slowly around the garden.  She couldn’t bear to stand still and look into his face for the rest of her account.

“Then, one day, I went to take a train and it happened.” It had felt like she was having a heart attack – dry mouth, chest pain, and difficulty breathing.  Later she’d learned that it was only a panic attack. Only. 

Taking a breath, Kaoru explained, “The press of people became just too much and I had a panic attack.  After that, I had trouble with crowds and public transport of any kind.”

For over a year she could barely leave the dojo, and only when in the company of Megumi, the only person still alive she trusted.  Luckily visitors to her home didn’t bother her, nor did students.  But that was in her comfort zone, her territory. 

One night she’d tried to run to the corner store to buy some bread and become surrounded by a rowdy group of teenagers storming the candy aisle.  That panic attack had sent her to the hospital.  For days afterwards she couldn’t bring herself to even leave her bedroom, and sometimes not even her bed.

Then one day, something changed.  She’d taken a deep breath and wrinkled her nose.  She smelled bad.  Forcing herself to leave the room, she’d crept over to the living room and picked up the phonebook.  She’d called Dr. Genzai, a counselor she’d seen briefly after her father had died.

Through a combination of medication and therapy, she slowly rebuilt, tile by tile and tear by tear, a stable base to stand on.  In the months after Megumi had returned to her job in the city, she’d gotten off the medication and successfully reentered her life, going to the grocery store, the museum, and even the petting zoo by herself.  She was careful to avoid the busiest times, but she was fine.  Kaoru hadn’t had a panic attack in months.  Unfortunately, this trip to the city had created the exact situations that could cause her attacks to reoccur: situations where she felt trapped, insecure, out of control, and too far from her personal comfort zone.

Giving herself a brisk shake, she told Kenshin, “I went to a counselor and learned how to avoid having such attacks in the future.  Sometimes though, certain things still trigger that panic, things like being trapped or forced into large groups of people.  When that happens, my mind shuts down and I simply react - I panic and run.  I’m much better than I was, but there’s a chance that I will never completely get over this.”  She still wasn’t looking at Kenshin when she finished her story.

Although she hadn’t wanted to tell him, Kaoru now felt eerily calm.  He now knew that she was psychologically damaged, mentally unsound.    There was nothing more she could say.  She could only wait for his reaction.

If she saw pity or disappointment when she turned around, she would pick up the pieces of her shattered heart and plan to escape at the first opportunity.  Kaoru had too much pride to stick around and watch him try to force a relationship he no longer wanted.  Firming her jaw, she swallowed. 

There was a chance that he would respect the strength it took to struggle against her own mind instead of giving in.  It was for this outcome that she hoped for.  Clutching the aura of calm tightly about her shoulders, she turned and forced herself to meet Kenshin’s gaze.  Nothing was ever easy.


	10. To His Coy Mistress

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I won best KK Romance/Waff in the 2005 RKRC Awards for Hakama Dake.  Whoo hoo!!  The Slumbering City got nominated for best Alternate Reality in the 2006 RKRC too.  Yay!  Readers rock! 
> 
> And yes, the title of this chapter is from the poem, “To his Coy Mistress,” by Andrew Marvell.

Air slid sluggishly down her throat. Kaoru wished oxygen was optional as she tried not to wince at the pain of breathing.  Emotion shouldn’t make your body hurt like this, but it did. Everything ached.  Losing a championship kendo match would have been less painful, less bruising.  Telling her mind to _get over it_ , she took a deep breath and forced herself to meet Kenshin’s eyes.

_But I can’t bear it if…._

Quickly, like a startled deer, her eyes flicked away, down to the moss-covered soil. _Were his eyes green, gold, or purple?_ _Maybe blue?_ If she wanted to know for sure, she’d have to look again.  But Kaoru was scared.  She didn’t want to have to try and translate color into emotion, into acceptance or rejection. Kaoru felt like an old rubber band – brittle and cracked. Even if she were lucky enough not to fall to pieces at the pressure, she would just lash out wildly and be lost instead.  

_I’m not over it… not completely, not yet._

Wrapping her arms tightly around her chest, Kaoru tried to hold herself together. She didn’t want to feel that again.  Suddenly, the soft shades of the garden were too much. The colors of the coffee-brown earth, speckled with patches of moss like jade-green tiles, stung her eyes.  Kaoru squeezed them shut. For a brief moment she retreated to a cold, lonely void of dark misery. This was a place she didn’t want to be – a gray place of memories, weakness, and fear. 

Then Kenshin’s presence enfolded her from within and without. Color returned to her senses.

_Touch._ Strong hands cradled her close, letting her feel the heat of sun-warmed skin and cotton. Tender palms rubbed up and down her back.  Their bodies rocked slowly. Calloused fingers skimmed her hips and sides, sending tingles through her skin, before returning to the dip of her back and arch of her spine.

_Sound._   Lips nuzzled the side of her head gently, rustling the strands. Murmured words of comfort flowed into her ears, uttered in languages foreign and strange. Yet a split-second after each exotic word, a masculine whisper of bells, water, and stone, the voice of his soul deep inside her heart, translated it into a flavor soothing and familiar.

_Scent_.  Burying her nose into the hollow between his shoulder and neck, she became aware of the slight musk of sweat, grass, and spice.  It was a scent simultaneously comforting and dangerous. Like the sun, it could either warm or burn.  But this sunlight scent would never burn her.  She knew that, _knew it_.

Kaoru’s muscles unclenched. Her senses drank him in. These sensations were planks and nails and ropes in the muck of her fears, buttressing her hopes. She let herself surrender, trusting his arms to hold her up.  Her mind calmed and her inner strength reasserted itself.

At some point his voice fell silent.  However, his body kept her cradled close.  Those warm hands kept stroking her back up and down, sometimes dipping below her waist slightly before continuing their soothing, and quickly arousing, perambulations. 

With her eyes closed, Kaoru’s other senses were more acute.  Taking a deep breath through her nose, she found herself focusing on the scent of Kenshin’s sweat.  She wanted to open her mouth and taste the salt of it on her tongue.  It enticed her. 

_Either he accepted her flaws or he didn’t._ Kaoru had rebuilt her center and was ready for whatever happened. If he was just doing the nice-guy thing and comforting a woman in distress, this might be her last chance for taste of that flavor.  _Besides, I have nothing to lose.  I might as well indulge myself._

Opening her lips, she slowly inhaled, savoring him.  Her tongue curled inside her parted lips and flicked at the air.  Her hazy blue eyes opened to slits as she concentrated on his phantom taste.  Brushing her nose against his hot neck, she began to bridge the minute distance with the tip of her questing tongue.

Yet he moved, right before she made contact. _Not fair!_   The arms enfolding her loosed and his body began to shake. The silence ended.  Kenshin started to laugh - loudly.

Kaoru was incensed, outraged, boiling with disappointment, hurt, and anger.  _How dare he?!_  

Here she had just bared her secrets, revealed the vulnerable underbelly of her psyche, and he was mocking her!  Vision wavering - _from rage, not tears, she assured herself_ \- Kaoru stepped back out of his arms, fisted her hand, and clouted him as hard as she could square in his insensitive, laughing mouth.

 

* * *

 

When the sky stopped spinning, Kenshin gingerly sat up and rubbed his face.  Part of him wanted to be angry at the blow, but most of him just felt surprised.  He looked up at Kaoru’s demonic face and looming form, her raised fist blocking out the sun.  _Fear, oh yes, there’s fear here too._ Quickly he scooted back until he was out of reach. 

Going back over the last few minutes in his mind, Kenshin tried to figure out what had just happened.  Would he ever understand women - especially this woman?

After Kaoru had finished her story, he had found himself staring at the vulnerable arch of her neck.  In the shimmering sunlight her porcelain skin looked translucent, with faint blue veins trailing down to slip beneath the collar of her shirt. He was more aware than ever before of just how fragile that flesh must be. 

When he’d looked closer, he could see a faint white crescent of skin curling around her bicep and under the shirtsleeve.  A scar.  Was it from the day of the bombing, or did it come from a more innocent source?  Perhaps she had earned it falling out of a tree or riding a bicycle.

Or maybe it had come from a heedless boot in a panicked crowd.

His brow creased; his fingers itched.  They wanted to slide around her waist, grasp the hem of that shirt, and lift it over her head.  There was nothing sexual about those thoughts, just an obsessive need to know.  _How far up did that crescent-shaped scar go? Does she have others?  I didn’t think to check before.  I didn’t look closely enough.  Fool._

He wanted to ask now; he wanted to heal and erase. 

_That’s my shirt, wrapped around her skin.  What other scars does it hide? What are their stories?  If I asked, would my shirt reveal her secrets to me? Or is it hers now and no longer subject to my will?_ That thought had opened doors that he didn’t wish to look at too closely. He wasn’t ready to take account of all the things no longer in his control.

Pursing his lips, his thoughts had turned to that summer two years ago, the summer of the bombings.  He and his forces had hunted down the terrorists.  Some were killed, others imprisoned to await trial.  Ironically, their fate had finally been decided the same week he met Kaoru. 

Actually, Saitou had barely returned from overseeing their punishment.  _And if I’m reading correctly between Kaoru’s words, he ran into her and did something offensive.  It’s been a while since we butted heads.  Perhaps it is time to remind him of who is truly the master here._  

If he had met Kaoru last year, there might not have been anyone left for a trial.  He’d like to think that reason and his respect for the law would have stayed his hand, but he was too old to start lying to himself now.  Just the thought of Kaoru being trampled made something vicious and very, very sharp rise within his chest. Where Kaoru was concerned, his emotions were still out of control. 

Putting down his anger for another time, Kenshin had blown out a long breath.  Without the anger to mask it, he could feel his stomach aching with the knowledge of Kaoru’s pain.  Yet she was so strong. 

It seemed that Kaoru had expected his censure. After her story, she’d given him one quick look.  Then she’d canted her head away from his face as if afraid.  Nevertheless, her body stood proud and tall before him, resolutely awaiting his reaction.

Despite her tragic story, he didn’t pity her.  The strength of her spirit defied such a reaction. 

_‘Thank you’_ sighed the voice of Kaoru’s bonded spirit, deep inside his soul. 

At that moment, Kenshin had realized that this was the final hurdle.  This was Kaoru’s big secret... and it changed nothing.  He still loved her.  In fact, it only deepened his respect for her, knowing that she’d overcome such a trial. 

With this out in the open, they could finally be together as one.  _She no longer had a reason to run away._ Relief and exultation flooded his body.  _At last, she’s mine!_

Kenshin felt giddy.  He couldn’t help it. With the deluge of joyful emotions bursting through his body, he began to laugh.

A few seconds later, Kaoru had decked him. Shaking off the sting, he slowly stood up.   

“Write if you must,” Karou coldly bit out, “but don’t call.”  Lowering her fist, Kaoru spun around and strode over to the edge of the garden veranda. Coming to a halt in front of the iridescent honeycomb barrier, she growled and gave it a vicious side blade kick.  The lack of shoes prevented her from kicking it straight on, and just as well.  It felt like little stinging needles were attacking the edge of her foot.

“Get rid of it!” she commanded without turning around.  Surreptitiously she shook out her foot.  “I saw it disappear earlier after you made me drink from the fountain, so it can’t be that hard.  Make it go away again.”

Kenshin was still a little annoyed and confused by the punch.  Every time he thought he had her figured out, she went and did something crazy on him.  Thus he answered, a little more sarcastically than his usual wont, “The same way I put it back up.  You must have seen me do it, feel free to do it yourself.  After all, the city’s magic loves you.”

Turning around, Kaoru glowered at him.  She had totally missed his replacement of the barrier, and she still had no idea how she was doing most of the magical things she’d accomplished.   However, she wasn’t going to admit that to him out loud, _the jerk_.

As he looked at her unhappy face, Kenshin gave a quick sigh and rubbed his face briskly.  He needed to be patient and mature.  Somehow, he had to get a hold of his wildly careening emotions.  Besides, he should know by this stage of his life that he would always be hopeless at understanding women. 

“Kaoru, I’m sorry.”  He didn't know for what, but if it made her smile it would be worth it.

Rubbing her foot against the calf of her other leg, she examined his face intently.  “You didn’t need to laugh at me.  A simple pat on the back and ‘let’s just be friends,’ would have been enough,” Kaoru said.

Kenshin tugged on his bangs and asked the gods for patience.  “Koi, I love you.  That hasn’t changed.”  He took a step closer. 

Kaoru stood her ground.

At this moment, he had to say the right words.  Mustering his will, Kenshin tried to project all of his love and sincerity.  “I was laughing in relief that we could be together now, that there were no longer any secrets between us.” Reaching out to cup her face, he looked deeply into her liquid blue eyes. “I admire and adore you, still, always, and forever.”

A trembling breath escaped Kaoru’s lips.  _He accepted her, even knowing the truth._   She never needed to be alone again. As a smile broke across her face, Kaoru flung herself across the clearing and into his arms.  _Their love would work.  It would!_

Kenshin caught her, swung her around once to bleed off the excess momentum, and then crushed her against his chest. For a few moments they simply hugged each other.  Each inhale pressed more of their bodies together, and each exhale of her breath rebounded off his skin to warm her face with a mixture of their scents.  It was magic – they were magic. 

Fitting her leg between his, she shifted even closer into the cradle of his body.  Her arms traveled up to rest along his sides, with her palms cupping his shoulder blades.  Strands of red-gold hair cascaded softly across her forearms.  _I’m home._

After a few minutes or hours, Kaoru couldn't tell which, she felt Kenshin’s grip loosen slightly and his head come up from its rest against the side of her head.  Looking up, she stared into his eyes.  They were gold, pure as sunlight.  She could see so clearly the honesty of his regard.  It touched her heart.  Moved, she could only gaze back. 

Slowly, the serious lines of his face began to change.  Humor crept into his eyes and the corners of his mouth began to twitch.  Kaoru couldn’t help responding.  Soon she started to laugh, and then he did, and before she knew it the entire garden was harmonizing to create a symphony of laughter, chiming leaves, and splashing water. 

Full to bursting, Kaoru couldn’t go another minute without kissing him.  Bringing her lips to his cheek, she gave it a happy kiss.  They she moved to the tip of his nose.  Kenshin went cross-eyed as he followed her progress.  She wanted to skip the rest and just descend on his mouth, but never let it be said that Kamiya Kaoru was a quitter. 

Moving to his other cheek, she then very carefully left a trail of moist kisses down his chin and along the tendon on the side of his neck.  Finally, when his breath had quickened and the rhythmic flexing of his muscles fighting for control proved too distracting, Kaoru returned to his lips. 

First she lightly flicked them with her tongue.  Then she waited for his response.

“Tease,” he breathed.  A split second later, his mouth covered hers. 

Moaning, Kaoru opened her mouth wide.  Lips moved against lips, tongues met and retreated, and Kaoru felt her insides begin to liquefy with desire.  Bringing her hand down along the edge of his chest to caress his side, she felt his stomach tighten and his breath catch.  It brought a wicked smile to her lips that Kenshin couldn’t help but feel.

As she rubbed up and down his side, trailing her finger ever closer to the center of his chest, she kept trying to elicit the same reaction.  She loved how his breath caught in his throat.  She wanted to hear it again. 

Sweeping the back of her knuckles up to his shoulder, she turned her hand around and carefully raked her nails down his chest, across the planes of his abdomen.  She only stopped at the hem of his pants, which she traced until her fingers reached the small of his back. 

Kenshin twitched, gave a husky moan deep in his throat, and tightened his arms around her convulsively.  His kiss became deeper and all consuming.  The lushness of his lips overwhelmed her.  For several timeless moments her entire reality consisted of the press of his body and the motion of his hot mouth.

Eventually, the kiss began to gentle.  Pulling away, Kenshin smoothed the hair back off of Kaoru’s flushed face.  Both of them were panting. 

“Are you alright?” he asked.

Kaoru couldn’t help her wide smile. “Yes, are you?”  He smiled back and moved closer again to resume their kiss.

Suddenly Kaoru had an unpleasant thought. “Megumi!” she exclaimed as she dodged his mouth.  “I can’t believe I forgot!  Are they all right?  They didn’t get in trouble, did they?”

“Do not worry, both Megumi and her companion are fine,” Kenshin soothed.  Tilting his head to the side, he gave her a small, mischievous smile. “They’re probably home right now… snuggled warm in their bed,” Kenshin’s eyes crinkled at the corners.

“In the middle of the day?” Kaoru teased as his arms reeled her back in.

Kenshin ignored her objection and kept talking, “pillows plumped, limbs entwined,” he ran a finger up her arm, down her side, smoothing it up under her shirt and dragging it hot and heavy across the sensitive skin in the small of her back.  He paused there, drawing small circles with the pads of his fingers and the tips of his nails.  Kaoru shivered. Her eyes quickly fell to half-mast.  She would have purred if she’d been a cat.

“A perfectly natural place for two people to be, a bed,” he breathed into her ear hypnotically.  “Can’t you see?”  Kaoru’s breath caught for a moment as the erotic picture bloomed in her mind. 

She could feel his smile on her neck as he brushed his face back-and-forth against her skin.  His other hand rubbed down her arm, picked it up and placed it around his neck. Kaoru took the hint and locked her arms behind his head as he continued talking.  Her fingers sank into the strands of his hair. 

“Picture the two of us lying together on a soft bed, the cool breeze brushing your skin and rustling through the pile of my clothing on the floor.  But since you’re wearing my clothes right _now_ , it will be both my and your clothing on the floor _then_.” 

Both of his hands dipped under her shirt, rubbing up the line of her spine, down to flit briefly but firmly across her butt before returning to their worship of her back.  She was putty in his hands.  Petting was her weakness.  That and his voice that just dripped with, _go ahead_ _and think it_ , spine-melting sex.

“You… and me… with nothing but heat and sweat separating the skin of our bodies,” his lips kissed down the line of her neck and slowly back up, closing around her earlobe with a devastating amount of suction.  “Love me, my _Koi_ ,” he entreated huskily.  “Love me.”

Kaoru was lost, she was found, she was his, that sweet talking _tease_.  Dragging his wicked mouth away from her ear, she looked him straight in the eyes.  “Listen to me.  I love you, and you love me, right?”

“Of course, I-,” he assured, but Kaoru didn’t let him finish.

“And we’re bonded, which is sort of like a spiritual marriage. I get that now, and I’m okay with it, but,” she tightened her fingers in his hair to make sure he could feel the pull, “it wasn’t initially consensual in the fully conscious sense, right?”

A wince flitted across his face, though from her words or the hair pulling, she couldn’t tell. “So we are going to get married again,” Kaoru declared firmly. “This time in the physical, legal, cliché wedding with family and friends attending sort of way.  And it will be small, and private,” she could tell Kenshin was just dying to say something, but Kaoru wanted to finish her new demands first. “And special, and then-”

“Of course, my love,” Kenshin finally managed to break in. “We can have it whenever you want.  We can schedule another marriage for next month.”

“Eh hem,” Kaoru cleared her throat at his interruption, and tried to ignore the feel of his fingers tracing her waistband long enough to finish her thought and keep her resolve. “And then we will have knock down, dragged-out sex with lots of foreplay and licking and the potential for love bites.”

At her words, Kenshin growled low in his throat and tightened his grasp around her waist.  “Koi….” Pupils blown wide, he lunged forward and captured her mouth in a wet, devouring, open-mouthed kiss.   Kaoru felt herself weakening, and allowed her tongue to flit along his upper lip just to hear that growl in his throat again.  Momentarily having the upper hand, as his were currently clutching her back and thigh, Kaoru grasped the base of his neck and pulled back while she still could.  His head canted towards her but she leaned farther back to stay out of his reach.

“Don’t be coy, I don’t think I can stand it,” he groaned.

Kaoru giggled.  “But I am your _koi_ , and as such entitled to be slippery and hard to catch, as well as strong-willed,” she teased.  Quickly leaning forward she gave him a peck on the lips.  Then she gave him another because she couldn’t help it. 

“I love you, Kenshin, but I deserve a consensual marriage of equal partners.  We will start that way or not at all.” Kenshin face showed his objection to her threat, but Kaoru was adamant.

“Fine, we can schedule a marriage for next week.”  Kenshin was obviously happy, but also obviously humoring her and not taking this as seriously as she wanted.  He’d ‘won’ her and no longer had any worries.

_We’re already boundBONDtiedFOREVERmineyoursLINKED,_ his soul chorused in her mind.

She realized that, but she wanted this done right and in a way to make her deceased parents proud.  Besides, she’d always dreamed that Megumi would be by her side the day she married. And she wanted it done in a church - a small church full of fragrant flowers.

Karou gave Kenshin a crooked smile. “Thank you, but you do realize that the naked and sweaty part is reserved for the marriage, right?”  She wanted it done right, but she was also full of years of pent-up passion and theoretical knowledge just waiting for the right man to unleash it.  A little prodding couldn’t hurt.

“The wedding will be this afternoon,” Kenshin demanded with a mock-serious face and twinkling eyes.  He kissed her softly, before stepping back and grabbing her hand.  “Well, come on, no time to waste,” he stated as he began dragging her up to the veranda.  “We’ll grab your friends, magic up a minister, and be in bed by suppertime.  You’ll be the appetizer,” he squeezed her hand, “and I’ll be dessert.”

The honeycomb force field that had trapped her inside the garden rippled and disappeared as he strode through it.  It happened so quickly that she couldn't even feel a tingle in her fingers. And he didn’t seem to have done anything to get it to disappear either, the rat.  She’d have to get it out of him later though, because for now she had more agreeable things on her mind.

Shivering pleasantly at the thought of such a dinner, Kaoru had to give a slightly regretful laugh. “Kenshin, I’m a mess!  And if you haven’t forgotten, I’ve been running for the last few days.  I need a bath and a shower and maybe if I’m really lucky a trip to the spa.” _Wow, am I channeling Megumi or what?! But I’d also like a pair of my own underwear.  And after lying underneath that prickly bush, a massage would be fantastic.  Not to mention that I would kill for a hot tub full of aromatic oils to banish the last of that muddy stench.  Then again, maybe Kenshin could do those things for me… but I definitely won’t keep my control if he does.  I’d molest him for sure. Ah, bad thoughts!_

“I’m not ready today,” she could feel his pout all the way down to his grip on her hand.  “We still need to talk about how magic works in this city.  It’s awake now, I can feel it.”

Kenshin’s smile was a little awed. “It is awake because of you, my little mage.  Together, we will heal The City and restore it to its former glory.”

A saucy look entered Kaoru’s eyes.  “With both you and I working on it, I bet we can make even it better than that.  After all, you have me for inspiration.”

Putting a serious look upon his face, Kenshin asked, “So what you are saying is that you are going to turn the magic in my city into a menagerie?”

“You should be so lucky,” Kaoru sniffed.  “However it ends up, OUR city is going to be fantastic.”

Kenshin laughed and tugged her closer. “It will be.”  Raising their entwined fingers to his lips, he kissed her hand. “Know what would be even more fantastic?”  A sultry gleam sharpened his gaze, “If you came back with me to my bedroom right now.”

Although she was sorely tempted, Kaoru was nothing if not stubborn.  “Tomorrow,” she riposted.  “Besides, I wanted you well-rested and full of stamina,” Kaoru teased daringly.

“What!?” Kenshin stared at her in disbelief and offended male pride. 

“I’ll marry you tomorrow,” she repeated.

He glowered, “You better.” Taking a step forward, he pulled her against his body and lowered his head to hers.  “I’ll show you stamina.”  Lightly kissing her with a closed mouth, his tongue nipped out to teasingly caress her bottom lip, then her top. Kenshin could feel himself smile.  His slightly parted lips then began to rub over her mouth, always just slightly off center. 

Kaoru kept trying to deepen the kiss or catch his tongue, but she kept failing.  He always stayed just out of reach, forcing her to lean more and more forward as she chased his lips. 

Frustrated, she finally leaned too far and overbalanced.  That’s when he attacked.  “Let’s see who has the most stamina now,” he challenged as he launched a tickle assault.

“No!” Kaoru shrieked, but it was too late.  Wiggling, giggling, and trying to twist away from his darting fingers, she felt herself fill with joy to the brim. It was silly and crazy to be having a tickle fight at the edge of a magical garden with the ruler of the city who just happened to be the man she loved.

Nevertheless, this was it, this was what she’d always wanted – a man like this… this man.

“I love you, Kenshin,” she declared with what breath she had to spare from the laugher.

Letting his assault end, Kenshin pulled her into a tight embrace full of sunshine, belonging, and love. Her curves fit into the hollows of his body and heart perfectly.  Breathing in the scent of her body, Kenshin closed his eyes, kissed her hair, and promised, “Forever, Koi. Forever.”

 

**THE END**


End file.
